Now I know how the Luddites felt. I mean it's neat that you can just list a link to a Wordnik search string and Bob's your uncle, but I mourn the loss of human agency. I lament the passing of the human touch in list-making. The days when an actual flesh-and-blood person had to go to Onelook and create their own search string, then type each word into the list. Or at least write a program to do all this.
The theme of the dream is that Ruzuzu has announced that she will be leaving the site, not immediately, but soon - her last day will be in a couple of weeks. Wordie (I'm pretty sure it was -ie, not -nik) is a physical space, roughly mapped onto the hillside neighbourhood where I live. Ruzuzu's "house" / presence on Wordie is at the top of the hill. I make my way by bike through slush and gloom to attend her farewell party.
Ruzuzu's space is a smallish bungalow, decorated haphazardly but not without discernment. Everyone is there, milling around with drinks, even long-gone names like Kewpid and Colleen. The atmosphere is cordial, bordering on fun, but with overtones of a wake. Chained_Bear has a baby with her which is passed around merrily. It says "poop!" while Bilby changes its diaper.
Ruzuzu has made a long list of content for us to create on Wordie after she has gone. One example is 'a page to commemorate Charles Sanders Peirce's upbraiding of Mark Twain at a congressional hearing for his improper pronunciation of deliquesce' (except in the dream, a full-page account of the event is given). I read the list and wonder how she can expect us to create all of this, then realise it doesn't matter because she has already created it in the form of the list.
But I am desperately sad that Ruzuzu is leaving. I implore her to stay, but to no end; things are intractably thus (that's what she says, quoting my favourite poet). Finding myself alone, I break down and sob desolately; I feel completely abandoned. Ruzuzu comes over and consoles me by saying that I can take one item from her house to remember her by. I look around and see nothing that could compensate for the loss of her. Bilby chooses a translucent, ruby-red desktop calculator, shot through with veins of amber. Later, I am persuaded to take a tripodal "postcard-holder" - three spindly wire legs with a crocodile clip at the top for clamping a postcard - on condition that she sends me a postcard from wherever she is bound.
I.e. from a given list, I want to take these particular dozen words, and move, or copy, them, to another list. I just tick those which apply and hit "move" (or "copy"), then chose the target list. You could allow copying from other people's lists, too. The same for multiple deletions.
Very interesting comment, especially that last sentence. You're dead right that the crunchiness of toast - including the sound of the crunch - is an integral part of the experience of eating it. The same applies to the crunching, cracking sound of biting into an apple. This is amplified when you listen to a horse, with its outsized chompers, eating an apple - the whole thing pretty much explodes at once.
"A few white mammal-bellied clouds dandered like plutocrats across the blue floor of the sky, and the reeky old city and many sorts of town and village and farmland were below me, and bleak hills edging the borders behind me, and the blue mountains edging the highlands in front, and the firth between them widening with islands and ships to the sea."
- Looking down on Auld Reekie, in 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray
Traditionally played by adults? What? So traditionally, adults play this game but kids don't? But right now it's different? Whaddaya mean by "traditionally" here?
Pedantry aside, I believe Wee Willie Winkie and Wynken are in fact the same individual. In his nonage he was given to running through the town, and this incipient wanderlust found an adult outlet in the storied fishing expedition with Blynken and Nod.
A crude mix of uppers and downers (amphetamines, opiates, caffeine etc) formerly used by professional cyclists as a performance enhancer. Fell out of use with the introduction of basic drug testing.
What the Bamiyan Buddhas made me realise is, I don't really object to blowing up statues, but I do very much object to the kind of people who want to blow them up.
I do not recall writing those comments. Sionnach, it hasn't arrived yet! It's being shipped from the UK I think. Can't wait to get stuck into a mess of arboreal erotica.
I also see ent - so I am going now to have intercourse with trees, I'm going into the vast forests of this province. My stride is such that in two days I will be out of Moot distance, and for those of you who don't know what that means - it was a Beta version called the "Tree". - I am surrounded by the bloody things but soon it will just be one vast plain full of escapists and associated Apple ghouls.
I also noticed the words ass, urge and gen - and the backword us, which seem to explain everything, When the great middle-class revolt occurs, this page will be the Rosetta Stone. Or do I mean the Golden Bough? Yes, the latter. Sorry Rosetta Stone!
"The pilot Juan Fernandez procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for some years resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, that he eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for after a time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a very garrulous barber in the city of Lima."
Much to love in that example. Jujubes. The odd assortment of "small articles". The smokers 'cachous. The moral "ought". The non-specific "dishonest customer" (or does Punch have a specific dishonest customer in mind?) And of course the muff.
"Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn."
"What outlandish beings are these? Erect as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin; as an edible, pertaining neither to Carnival nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased sea-story of Rodondo."
Dan: I wonder if French "lieu" is related to Spanish "lugar", place. Seems reasonable. If so, it's great that "loo" is related to the Spanish - and presumably the Latin - for "place".
If someone said they were having their bathroom - or their loo - renovated, then I would indeed assume that the crapper was being ripped from its moorings. Very few houses have a room with a bath but no toilet in it these days, so the sense of "bathroom" as distinct from "loo" is obsolete.
Rolig, there is actually a transatlantic distinction re: "go to the bathroom". The sense of "urinate and/or defecate" is pretty much confined to North America, I think. In the UK one would say "the dog crapped in / shat in the kitchen", or in more polite language, "fouled" or "soiled" the kitchen. So I think in this case the Americans take the periphrasis a step further than the Brits do, as they do also by using the ridiculous term "restroom".
I've never heard it called "the head". Surely there is a list somewhere?
But equally, would one call a room with no toilet a "bathroom"? In your scenario, were "loo" to be replaced with "bathroom", I bet most people would still infer that the person was going to the room with the W.C. Ergo, "bathroom" is a synonym of "loo".
The way the English language tiptoes around this subject is pretty pathetic. We require a polite, specific word for the thing itself (crapper or bog, perhaps) and also for the room (dunny, shithouse?) - words which aren't euphemisms. I'm fed up with restrooms and lavatories and washrooms and privies.
Yes, part of the auditory landscape of London. The reason it's so well imprinted on the London psyche is not just its repetition but the intonation used in the recorded messages. "Mind... the GAP." There's a suspenseful delay before "the gap" which seems to imply that there is more to the gap than we're being told, or that the "the gap" isn't just the gap between the platform and the train, but a more terrible existential gap into which we shall all of us assuredly fall sooner or later.
As a Scottish place name, this may not belong on madmouth's list, but I've had it revolving in my mind for some time now and... well, I wouldn't mind a beef tub of my own.
Oh boy, Ruzuzu, for that you deserve a great, strouting Rabelaisian codpiece, a codpiece so big it obscures your entire person. Ruzuzu that was so much fun. You're lucky there are no Vulcans in Lincoln (at the last census, anyway) because if there were, they'd all be glomming on to you with the mind-melds.
Horrible how this memetic modern-major-general phrase has infected everyday discourse. I heard a cop, naturally, use it on the TV news the other day, along the lines of "our thoughts are with the hearts and minds of the victims..." And today I'm reading a subpar nonfiction book (2010) about earthquakes and I get:
"China's reported success story injected a surge of scientific adrenalin into the hearts and minds of those who saw prediction as the holy grail of the new seismology."
Dasani is pure branding, its success the ultimate expression of form over substance. You could say that about any bottled water, but the meaningless name is the cherry on top.
"To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over a greater area. Likely for the same reason, hippos are retromingent-- that is, they urinate backwards."
Excellent. The first sentence in particular is like a description of some retro-futuristic variation on the ouija board - which is actually how I've always thought of the telephone.
Thanks biocon! Fun coinkidink then. Reason I ask is 'cause near where I grew up there was a small precipitous hill called "The Cliffe" or "The Clive". I always wondered where the name came from, and this word seemed to blend the two spellings.
editrix is one of my favourite words but I wouldn't call its falling into disuse a "dumbing down of gender". In fact I think I prefer the gender-neutral occupations. It's certainly less hassle than e.g. Spanish where you're always having to add an 'a' if the person happens to be female.
I'm sure they're very clever (albeit oddly-monikered) fellows, but until they've made the Statue of Liberty disappear I really don't think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as David Copperfield.
Were they true, they were highly extenuating, and were they a lie, they they but a mediocre sally - so of course they were heartily well meant.
Your parsnips are not, thank God!, my responsibility. But I will do you the courtesy of my advice: smother the buggers in lard, basted with your own umbrage, and consume without compunction.
But one learns from one's mistakes, n'est-ce pas, mon amie? By alluding to your extensive learning, I was paying you a compliment - so pray return that umbrage, which I believe was withdrawn from the fell swoop page.
You misunderstand, sionnach, and not for the first time. A particularly ruthless individual may well swoop felly twice, thrice or any number of times, on different targets - but one can't by defintion experience - that is, fall prey to - more than a single such swoop.
I'm really thinking of the head honcho of the Nazgul, the Witch-King of Angmar, on his faithful fell beast here (I think the fell beasts are more or less the fellest swoopers known to man).
I've long been in favour of literal timestamps - they're more precise, and sometimes knowing the intervals between posts can add nuance, or help one to interpret an old conversation. I can't see an advantage to "about three years ago" etc.
EDIT: this comment was following one by adrian which has disappeared.
Every school had bike sheds back in the day. Behind the bike sheds was the scene of illicit activities like smoking, fighting and smooching. I've never heard of a house with a "bike shed" though - at home I use the back yard for those activities.
"...'the film he made out of Alastor before he went to Hollywood, which he shot in a bathtub, what he could of it, and apparently stuck the rest together with sequences of ruins cut out of old travelogues, and a jungle hoiked out of In dunkelste Afrika...'"
"'I have,' the Consul said, 'a slight confession to make, Hugh... I cheated a little on the strychnine while you were away.'
'Thalavethiparothiam, is it?' Hugh observed, pleasantly menacing. 'Or strength obtained by decapitation. Now then, don't be careful, as the Mexicans say, I'm going to shave the back of your neck.'"
"She was, unlike the Philoctetes, everything in his eyes a ship should be. First she was not in rig a football boat, a mass of low goalposts and trankums. Her masts and derricks were of the lofty coffee-pot variety."
"There was a lane branching to the left before you reached Jacques' house, leafy, no more than a carttrack at first, then a switchback, and somewhere along that lane to the right, not five minutes' walk, waited a little cool nameless cantina with horses probably tethered outside, and a huge white tomcat sleeping below the counter of whom a whiskerando would say: "He ah work all night mistair and sleep all day!" And this cantina would be open."
"The strychnine - he had ironically put some ice in it - tasted sweet, rather like cassis; it provided a species of subliminal stimulus, faintly perceived: the Consul, who was still standing, was aware too of a faint feeble wooling of his pain..."
We have a book made from elephant dung paper at home. It's one of those books that lie around the house and no one's sure where they came from. I wouldn't call it a classic. Nice texture though.
In the sense quoted by billprice, referring to a simple subject or object, aka works fine. But in the broader sense of "i.e." ("that is to say..." referring to a proposition or conclusion) - a "thought" rather than a "thing" - aka is no alternative.
Better, then, to stick to aka's original meaning, i.e. alias.
I like the new look and feel a lot and it seems pretty user-friendly to me.
I've only one beef, but it's a big one - a whole raw steer in fact. I hate the in-your-faceness of the Twitter feeds next to the comments. The tweets are almost always irrelevant, usually moronic, often misspellings or typos, frequently obscene and occasionally offensive, so couldn't they be hidden behind a button somewhere instead of staring us in the face?
Sionnach said somewhere that he sees Wordnik as something of a haven from the turpitude of the internet in general, and it's the same for me. If I want to dip my toe in the cesspool, I can find my own way to Twitter or Youtube, but please don't pipe it onto Wordnik's wonderful comment pages!
Again, considering this is a fairly radical redesign, I'm pleased and impressed. Thank you all for taking such good care of the site and for feeling the same way I do about words - there's nowhere remotely like Wordnik.
I knew a bloke in Chile who was called el mataburros by his friends on account of his reckless driving and history of accidents on a particular behairpinned mountain road.
Well, I've reinstalled my dickey OED and it's not much help. Apparently it's a back-formation from rorty, adj. (also raughty) "of dubious propriety" (among other senses) which is of course "of obscure origin" (OED-speak for "sorry we haven't a clue").
The only usages it gives of the verb form are as gerunds - rorting used as a noun.
I can't remember the last time I encountered an Australianism that was totally new to me, like this. I quite often run into regional American slang with which I'm unfamiliar, and it's always exciting when I do, but as a Brit I always identified more closely with Australians (and hence their lingo) than with Americans.
Would love to know the etymology of rort. I bet it's some weird Gaelic thing; that would explain why it's so strange to me.
I've picked a few picayune specimens already, or rather my kids have. And yesterday we had our first strawberry, surprisingly red after a soggy spring.
I was just wondering about that the other day. I work downtown so I can drink coffee, eat sushi, and all manner of other things pretty much whenever I want. My email's on my librarything profile.
As for the onion, I believe I'm on record as saying it's my favourite vegetable, and I will champion it in any debate touching on the vegetable universe. And it certainly conveys its dignity (rotundity and hue, remember?) until you cut (or bite) into it, and it assails you with that sweet, stinging prickly perfume and bleeds its pungent juices all over your hard-bitten fingertips... I love it and it may look dignified, but inside it's a punk.
When Wales and England met Scotland 430m years ago during the frankly smutty-sounding Caledonian orogeny, a range of mountains – the Caledonides – of Himalayan proportions was formed at the centre of a continent that contained all the world's landmass.
- Ian Vince, Britain's Historic Past, in guardian.co.uk, 26-5-11.
Kohlrabi and baby okra may indeed be teh alsome, but they aren't dignified!
Beets are a contender I suppose, as would be most of the sturdier roots, but if it's a combination of brilliance and rotundity you're after then you're going to be running up hard against the majestic pumpkin.
I think the sporting adage "form is temporary, class is permanent" applies. If we're going to speak of dignified vegetables then the dignity must be enduring, not merely a passing fad or foible.
Although I don't especially like the taste of them, I do find artichokes especially dignified. They have such stability, and also a sort of primness about them, like a maiden aunt in a great skirt (although like all vegetables, they yield readily to a salacious reading).
I quite agree rolig; it's your last objection that really makes this word an utter failure. You can't just stitch together any two words and have a witty portmanteau - there has to be a verbal vetting, too.
I had just about heard of toroidal group motion – the ring formed by some fish or the aforementioned slime moulds – but klinotaxis and hysteresis are new ones on me. The former describes what happens when a flock of birds "decides" to travel in one particular direction rather than in another- Nicholas Lezard, reviewing Flow by Philip Ball, Guardian.co.uk, 8-6-11.
After days of deliberation, I've decided this is my favourite STF (or at least the one I most want on a mug - I was very fond of athlete's foot fetish as well, not to mention hemorrhoid cream puffs).
For sure Duffel van der P's comments were coming with the notification emails until about a week ago - now I have to actually look at the list to get my daily fix, which sort of makes the emails redundant.
I discovered Wordie while browsing the "also on" drop-down list on Librarything. The first word I listed, and still one of my favourites, was donkeyman, which I'd found in a novel not long before. My second might have been poopyhead.
I'm sure you used to be able to view a given Wordnik's activity, i.e. everything they've done, listing, commenting, favouriting, tagging etc., and click through back to the very beginning. But now I can't find it.
But I think the reason that employing very is often seen as poor style is not that it fails to convey what is meant, but that it does so abstractly, by - *flicks through Creative Writing 101 Textbook* - telling instead of showing. Better to say that reesetee's desk is large enough to accommodate a nine-hole golf course than simply to say that it is very large.
Also perhaps because it's prone to overuse. However I do like it in its older sense of genuinely, verily: the "very gentil parfait knight".
Yes, definitely rolig. I would be very surprised to hear whilst used in normal speech by someone under the age of 35, and in a young person it does sound quite plummy and public school, that is if it's not an obvious affectation. However - and the more I think about this the less certain I am - it's the sort of word you also hear on the lips of working-class pensioners in pubs - especially, and here it gets bizarre, old women.
So there you go, unreliable anecodtalism at its finest from someone who hasn't lived in the UK for seven years.
Yes, quite an honour! I had never heard of a spelling bee until after I left school , and I bitterly regret not being able to take part in one. They look like fun.
"'This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,' Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett told reporters.
The man and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home."
Speaking as a subject of Her Majesty, I can confirm that whilst, amongst and amidst are in common use in speech and informal writing, although in all three cases I think the non -st forms predominate.
Personally I don't like and never use whilst; the other two I'm neutral on and cannot with certainty deny that they occasionally pass my lips.
Actually, on reflection, I think I prefer amidst to amid, but among to amongst - purely arbitrary I suppose.
Hurrah! Now add 119 favourites, 81 lists - or better still, 181, and preferably 67 pronunciations before you comment again - but I'm sure you can do that in the next 12 hours or so. You are unhesitatingly the mainstay of Wordnik, and that makes you a mainstay of my mind.
I knew Century Dictionary (for some reason I'm loath to abbreviate this) would be your downfall, ruzuzu. I do like a game of scrabble although I'm long out of practice.
Yes he did. And playful is another one I'm kicking myself over (I'm kicking my knees, in case you were wondering). Too clever by half. A bit like froggo's stripper in the last one.
Ruzuzu, I'll take the mug if you'll accept the Sisyphean task privilege of masterminding the next edition a year hence. Incidentally it was the looniness that gave your lunette away to me.
And I can't believe I didn't get distingue! Shoddy lapse.
I've just realised that in true Eurovision-fashion, the winner of ID the 'nik is required to compere the next installment. Because this daunting challenge outweighs the allure of the mug, and because it would certainly prolong the agony entertainment, I am happy to continue with a playoff.
Hang on a minute. As far as I can see, 'zuzu got these right: blafferty, erinmckean, fbharjo, frindley, PossibleUnderscore, seanahan, wordnicolina. It's seven, no?
I like the taste of coffee, but the smell is better. I'm really struggling to think of things that taste better than they smell. Beer, maybe. Wine, sometimes. And some relatively odourless foods like confectionary... but there isn't much.
"Playing bumble-puppy with Minnie Beebe, niece to the rector, and aged thirteen--an ancient and most honourable game, which consists in striking tennis-balls high into the air, so that they fall over the net and immoderately bounce; some hit Mrs. Honeychurch; others are lost. The sentence is confused, but the better illustrates Lucy's state of mind, for she was trying to talk to Mr. Beebe at the same time."
First thing I did was try to identify the seven (c)red-herrings, i.e. the seven words I thought most likely to have been thrown into the mix by gangerh.
Then there were two or three match-ups that I was certain of, so I filled those in. Then it was a case of eliminating all the "no-way!" combinations and seeing what was left that worked. I also took account of other people's choices, going with the mass of opinion in a couple of cases where I might otherwise have chosen differently.
I would like a way to mass-import Ruzuzu's favourite words into my own favourites list.
How about mass-pilfering tools in general - for lists, I mean? A tool that lets you copy the contents of one list, whether yours or someone else's, straight over to another one.
Just noticed prolagus also provided a spreadsheet - well, there's another one for "systematic", ha ha. Thank you also, p, though I went with the first one I saw.
"At certain times of the year, particularly after the rainy season, they velvet mites'>velvet mites proliferated, and the grass around our house hotched with them."
- William Boyd, Memories of the Sausage Fly (collected in Bamboo).
Reading that Lanark citation from two years ago makes me want to go back and read it again.
Ha ha! Love the wine/swine pun! I've been to Denny's only once, while my wife was giving birth to our second kid, and it was crap, but this ad has convinced me to try again.
Honestly, all this guff about "word-making". As if English was cold-forged by some mythical Wayland Wordsmith in a halcyon age of morphological innocence.
Yeah, I've heard both front and put up used with both cash and money in both the UK and North America. Not sure there's much of a regional distinction here.
No, I don't think it does. But there are certainly two distinct kinds of nostalgia: a personal one, and a more communal one, perhaps harking back to a supposed golden age, a traditional culture or just an earlier way of life, all of which could date from hundreds or thousands of years ago. This I suppose is what benw is trying to identify.
For example, I sometimes feel a pang of nostalgia for the Cretaceous.
Thanks for pristinity, moll - another good offering, but to me at least pristine implies not only unbroken, virgin, but also perfectly clean and uncontaminated. In the end I just went with unbrokenness - it was not important anyway, just a lame comment on a blog.
Hi writer - just to let you know there's no need to leave definitions on common words, since there are multiple dictionary definitions accessible under the "definitions" section of each word's page (top left).
Thanks, integrity is the best suggestion yet. It's slightly diluted by its ethical connotation, which I would say is dominant, but it might be as close as I'm going to get.
Our house is small, and garageless, so I have to keep my bikes in a windowless storage room upstairs. The room smells unmistakeably of bike - I suppose it must be a blend of grease, rubber and (to my shame) dirt.
CD has a bunch of adjectival and verbal senses listed under "noun" - but it's not a noun. And anyway, by far the stronger meaning is "healthy, fit, sprightly".
Something needs to be done about people looking up capitalized words and then complaining when the usage examples relate to proper nouns (or "proper names"). There needs to be some way of informing people that wordnik is case-sensitive, or else someone needs to review the obliviots and cull them.
All too often while shopping for groceries, I find myself plunging my face into the biggest bunch of coriander I can find and inhaling until my lungs are swollen with the vivifying, coppery, earthy fragrance.
"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it's not fair for the football we played."
You're looking at a list of definitions, not synonyms. And yes, I can actually imagine exclaiming "Oh! Bisexual!" every time something is perfect. I think it would be funny - although I'm sure the novelty would wear off.
I read a novel recently - "An Ice-Cream War" by William Boyd - which features an entrepreneurial sisal farmer whose prized possession is his mighty mechanised decorticator.
True, but you have to have had pants - or the idea of pants - to be without them. It's very French actually, being and nothingness and all that palaver.
Obviously it's out of context, but translation: Bunbury (a player) scored for Kansas City, giving them a 1-0 lead over the Whitecaps.
It was a cracking game - wish I hadn't turned the T.V. off with 25 minutes to go and the 'caps down 3-0. They ended up drawing 3-3 with two goals in stoppage time.
Well, with lens, it's easy: "lens's" indicates singular, "lenses'" plural. The problem with species is that unlike lens, it's plurale tantum.
I favour "species's" when the genitive singular is intended. Because that apostrophe-ess is a marker of gen. s., whereas the ess-apostrophe denotes gen. plural. But maybe it's not so obvious to other people?!
The meaning should be clear from the context, but if not, then "species's" - at least to my ear - is clearly singular, whereas "species'" could refer to the ecology of one, or more than one, species.
It seems perverse to be redacting harmless words like ██████ and ████████, while trainspotting remains there for all to see.
Ahem. Now that I'm getting over the old internet "I thought he was female" shock, that's a rather odd linguistic foible you have there isn't it? If it's no trouble for you, I probably would pronounce it "tricycle" rather than "chricycle".
What confuses me (other than your gender) is the implication in your penultimate sentence that "jream" is the common pronunciation. It sounds pretty weird to me.
I just love the idea of bullets designed to minimise injury. Of course rubber bullets have been around for ever, but I always thought the same about them.
I mean if they're so good at minimising injury, why aren't they used by paramedics?
Clackers is new to me - looks like an executive stress toy! It's got none of the naked aggression and potential for embarrassment that conkers has. But my favourite thing about conkers was nurturing a winner, just as a promoter guides the career of a champion boxer - you'd train it, and hype it, and only bring it out when you thought the potential glory to be gained not only outweighed the risk of defeat, but was substantial in and of itself - which was increasingly rarely. In the meantime you'd be throwing your one-ers and two-ers into battle, trying whether they had what it took.
And there was the whole technical side, which others really got into, with dousing and baking and vinegaring, and different ways of drilling and different kinds of string - but in my experience, none of that alchemy really helped; in fact a good hard conker needed no treatment to beat any number of treated ones.
Marvelous! I've half a mind to join you in a re-read, although this sudden interest in Greek is taking up more time than I intended it to at the outset.
hh: it's always a pleasure to have one's lists pillaged, especially by such a luminary as you.
One of my very favourite trees - shady, strong, and genial, with that exquisite contrast between the spikiness of the husk and the smoothness of the seed. And fond childhood memories of scouring the lanes and fields for prime conker material.
Laser tits woman is the new desktop chez yarb. The kids will probably be annoyed when they notice, but damn it, that flirtatious scarlet macaw had had more than its 15 minutes.
"This Gump resembled an Elk's head, only the nose turned upward in a saucy manner and there were whiskers upon its chin, like those of a billy-goat." - The Marvellous Land of Oz, Frank L. Baum.
"Gumps appear to be common animals in the land of Oz. They are elk-like creatures but with caprine whiskers. Specifically The Gump is actually just the head of one of these creatures mounted on a plaque, with two sofas for a body, palm tree limbs for wings, and a broom for a tail. This was all tied together with clothes line. After his construction, the Gump was brought to life using the Powder of Life. He was later disassembled, at his own request, and remained only a head for the remainder of the series. The Gump is one of two creatures who were once living and then brought back to life by the Powder of Life, the other was a blue bear skin rug owned by a woman named Dinah." - Wikipedia
Actually I think there is such a thing as yarbiturates.. vague memories of someone, probably rhming with trilby, distilling such a noisome brew in the past.
Yes an excellent list. Personally I think you did well to create a list before ruzuzu could comment on it. I've been a bit slow at creating lists recently and the last few have actully come with pre-comments by ruzuzu. You've got to be pretty snappy to get in ahead of her!
Bilby that's the best joke I've seen on wordnik in yonks - possible ever. I doff my hat to it and it's only out of prudery that I hesitate to doff the rest.
The thing is I'm not a big fan of sustainability (as a word) precisely because it has that stain bang in the middle of it. But at least it has some ability.
This is just a stain surrounded by suism, which could be a collective noun for lawyers, or short for sewer system, or the activities of a suist.
I was actually referring (facetiously) to O'Brian - who I do still plan on reading... if I ever manage to machete my way through the dense growth of my tbr pile.
I keep wanting to call it a push-me-pull-you, but I realise that was a quadrupedal creature with two front-ends from Alice, or Dr. Doolittle, or maybe Gulliver's Travels, or something like that.
I suppose the reason KWAY-sy makes me so queasy is that in most English words beginning qua- (quag, quality, quadrangle, qualm, etc), the first syllable is pronounced KWAH or KWO. I can think of very few pronounced KWAY where the /a/ is not part of a different phoneme (e.g. quail, quake).
I think it's best for all if I keep my hrad /s/ to myself.
I'm not following you, chelster. You seem to be saying:
"Quasi-" - loanword (i.e. directly) from Latin, so we use the English system of pronunciation.
"Quasimodo" - comes directly from Latin, so it's an exception.
In my experience it's simply that KWAY-sy (or -zy) is the American pronunciation, while KWAH-sy is normal in England and Australia (don't know about other Anglophone countries).
I believe it's that (U.S.) post offices were famous for driving their employees and customers to rage / insanity. I'm surprised you'd not heard it before - although I'm not sure I've heard it in that sense of pure excitement.
Bilby, I think in your example it's rather is that's substituting (as a convenience) for equals. Even staying in the sphere of maths I think there is a distinction. "Equals" in your example here is shorthand for "is the sum of". Three plus four equals seven, but seven doesn't equal a prime number - it is a prime.
Thanks but all your lists are so copious and exhaustive that I almost never have anything to add. It's like the Pope handing you a brush and palette in the Sistine Chapel and giving you permission to embellish as you see fit.
Yes, synchronization isn't vicarious. This would be menstruating (or believing oneself to be menstruating) out of sympathy with another. If I ever menstruate I'll come back and add further thoughts.
Obviously Shakespeare, Ulysses, the verse of Gavin Ewart and maybe Byron, Orwell's essays, the Shorter OED, Don Quixote in the Smollett translation and Teh Manuscript Found in Saragossa.
I think that because sense #2 is dominant, a usage of sense #1 needs to make reference to whatever aspect of the subject is so stunning (e.g. its complexity). Otherwise ("Oh, what a stunning war!") it does indeed sound wrong.
As for wrestling with a stunning thing, good point but I think it's possible (e.g. a hangover). Basically the way I read that sentence is like this:
The situation was complex enough to stun a mere mortal, but Holbrooke wrestled with its complexity - as Superman might wrestle with an impending meteorite - and emerged triumphant and unstunned.
I don't think "stunning" has become inextricably wedded to sense #2 (although this is the more common sense these days), and I don't see why sense #1 need refer to a literal, physical blow rather than a figurative one.
I just read it a couple of weeks ago. I started dog-earing pages, with a list in mind, but it was so much fun that before long I gave it up and just ripped through it like a ferret in a hole. Maybe next time.
They're very tasty, too, you know, sauteed with butter and onions or what you will (but the smaller giant puffballs are better for eating than the really humongous ones).
As a young whelp I discovered, in a bramble-ridden copse close to my home, a clutch of abnormally large giant puffballs. For some strange reason my father called the local newspaper, and a photographer came to take our picture - me, one or more siblings, and the giant puffballs.
I read it as McFadden using stunning in AHD's sense #1 of stun - "to daze or render senseless, as if by a blow"; i.e. the situation was so complex as to leave one dazed.
To my mind, the note of admiration is not inevitable and may represent a newer sense of the word. Someone with OED access could check this.
It's an olympic sport! When I was in school all the girls played netball. It's very common in the UK and Australia.
I tried it once and I've got to say it seems a bit stupid. Basically it's like basketball but you're not allowed to move while you're holding the ball, and you're not allowed to jump when you shoot.
I think you should definitely record the last verse too. It puts a whole different slant on the song. Are you going to present it live, or on a commemorative CD? Is it on youtube?
Hi Richard. Unfortunately I am not on the Council of Words (CoW) but I have a contact who is. My source tells me that the CoW is aware of your word and will vote on its validity at the next Meeting of Officials of the Council of Words (MooCoW). I'll let you know the results of the CoW's deliberations as soon as I can.
I'd say something like "the activities the student will be involved in are a great advertisement for biology as a career" or "the activities will highlight or showcase the appeal of a career in biology".
I made the same comparison in a high-school essay and have ocasionally pondered it since, but your guess is as good as mine.
From wikipedia: "Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is the most high-profile collector of toby jugs, with his collection said to be the largest in North America."
Very interesting; when I were a whelp crazy people were often described as tap or tapped. I assumed it was from the gesture of tapping the side of one's head to indicate mental instability in another.
Comments by yarb
Show previous 200 comments...
yarb commented on the word trending words
Lost: one cat.
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-gods-must-be-crazy
What a beast this list is!
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list king-in-uruk
Would you say this is a happy list, ruzuzu?
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list words-from-the-big-lebowski
I tear up at the scattering of Donny's ashes.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word Never let a time traveler have his picture taken with you if you don't know why he's smiling.
I bet the older gentleman was Mark Twain.
edit: or Jean-Luc Picard.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word reverse boustrophedon
Duly tagged.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list words-with-uu--1
Now I know how the Luddites felt. I mean it's neat that you can just list a link to a Wordnik search string and Bob's your uncle, but I mourn the loss of human agency. I lament the passing of the human touch in list-making. The days when an actual flesh-and-blood person had to go to Onelook and create their own search string, then type each word into the list. Or at least write a program to do all this.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word pi-stachio
Ha ha! *tries vainly to think of more Greek letters that could come before "-stachio"*
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word mazzafegati
Time for a list of sausages, I think. God I love sausages.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word slinzega
This stuff sounds delicious.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list 50-k-for-50k
Kongratulations.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word zany
That sentence is equally true when preceded by the words "Calling your opponent..."
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word union
Surely that would be ioff?
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word union
Not an onion.
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word articulatio genus
We are the knights who say "articulatio genus".
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word Wordnik dreams
The theme of the dream is that Ruzuzu has announced that she will be leaving the site, not immediately, but soon - her last day will be in a couple of weeks. Wordie (I'm pretty sure it was -ie, not -nik) is a physical space, roughly mapped onto the hillside neighbourhood where I live. Ruzuzu's "house" / presence on Wordie is at the top of the hill. I make my way by bike through slush and gloom to attend her farewell party.
Ruzuzu's space is a smallish bungalow, decorated haphazardly but not without discernment. Everyone is there, milling around with drinks, even long-gone names like Kewpid and Colleen. The atmosphere is cordial, bordering on fun, but with overtones of a wake. Chained_Bear has a baby with her which is passed around merrily. It says "poop!" while Bilby changes its diaper.
Ruzuzu has made a long list of content for us to create on Wordie after she has gone. One example is 'a page to commemorate Charles Sanders Peirce's upbraiding of Mark Twain at a congressional hearing for his improper pronunciation of deliquesce' (except in the dream, a full-page account of the event is given). I read the list and wonder how she can expect us to create all of this, then realise it doesn't matter because she has already created it in the form of the list.
But I am desperately sad that Ruzuzu is leaving. I implore her to stay, but to no end; things are intractably thus (that's what she says, quoting my favourite poet). Finding myself alone, I break down and sob desolately; I feel completely abandoned. Ruzuzu comes over and consoles me by saying that I can take one item from her house to remember her by. I look around and see nothing that could compensate for the loss of her. Bilby chooses a translucent, ruby-red desktop calculator, shot through with veins of amber. Later, I am persuaded to take a tripodal "postcard-holder" - three spindly wire legs with a crocodile clip at the top for clamping a postcard - on condition that she sends me a postcard from wherever she is bound.
December 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Wordnik dreams
Is there a list or a place somewhere for discussion of Wordie/nik-related dreams? I had a zinger last night.
December 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word wears
You should probably check another 1,000 examples, just to be sure.
December 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word mumchance
"There had been school days like this when teachers sent questions thudding on some dream. And you sat mumchance."
- J.P. Donleavy, Franz F
December 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word who loves this list
See who has favourited a given word or list (possibly with opt-out on profile screen).
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word multiple-checkboxes to add-move-delete words in one go
I.e. from a given list, I want to take these particular dozen words, and move, or copy, them, to another list. I just tick those which apply and hit "move" (or "copy"), then chose the target list. You could allow copying from other people's lists, too. The same for multiple deletions.
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the user Reader
Ouch, a stinging critique.
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word mouthfeel
Very interesting comment, especially that last sentence. You're dead right that the crunchiness of toast - including the sound of the crunch - is an integral part of the experience of eating it. The same applies to the crunching, cracking sound of biting into an apple. This is amplified when you listen to a horse, with its outsized chompers, eating an apple - the whole thing pretty much explodes at once.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word Longwangmiao
*snigger*
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word almost almost almost Solveig
See new new interface.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word new new interface
It's almost almost almost Solveig.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word avuncular
Neither vuncular nor its opposite. That to which the concept of vuncularity does not apply.
November 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word hatekillpuke
Ha ha!
November 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word Auld Reekie
Edinburgh.
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word dander
"A few white mammal-bellied clouds dandered like plutocrats across the blue floor of the sky, and the reeky old city and many sorts of town and village and farmland were below me, and bleak hills edging the borders behind me, and the blue mountains edging the highlands in front, and the firth between them widening with islands and ships to the sea."
- Looking down on Auld Reekie, in 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word thole
"...those Stalinist crimes imputed to you by your most ardent admirers and which the intelligently decent have NEVER been able to thole."
- Alasdair gray, 1982, Janine.
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word galvanic
... or nostalgic for the era of galvanism.
November 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word lahal
Traditionally played by adults? What? So traditionally, adults play this game but kids don't? But right now it's different? Whaddaya mean by "traditionally" here?
November 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word semicolon
"They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing."
- surely this is a reason to use semicolons?
November 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word jealous
Jealousy can have that meaning, but I think it's most often used synonymously with envy. But it's a nice distinction.
I'm a fan of the word envy. It's all scrunched-up and spiteful-sounding.
November 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word faluns
They banned it, but it still hasn't falun out of fashion.
November 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word faluns
In China, their serving is announced by the faluns-gong.
November 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word abscond
I think that must be a Wordie Pro feature, my friend.
November 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word Penny in Italy
Thanks sionnach. Panel and poem both very much in the spirit of Alf.
November 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word shoofly pie
Shoofly? Don't bother me.
November 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Penny in Italy
Sounds exactly like "A Room with a View".
Give me the Bash Street Kids any day. Or Alf Tupper, Tough of the Track.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*commences bacchanalia*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
Pedantry aside, I believe Wee Willie Winkie and Wynken are in fact the same individual. In his nonage he was given to running through the town, and this incipient wanderlust found an adult outlet in the storied fishing expedition with Blynken and Nod.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
Did you mean Wynken, Blynken, and Nod?
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*press*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*press*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
He's the poet who guided Dante through the undervorld.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
Oh look! A tasty food pellet.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*presses*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word pot belge
A crude mix of uppers and downers (amphetamines, opiates, caffeine etc) formerly used by professional cyclists as a performance enhancer. Fell out of use with the introduction of basic drug testing.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word chain
It is evident!
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz: one person, or two?
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word strapline
I did.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word path
Bleurgh.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
I suppose I've had the odd tooth-loss dream, but no, they're no fun; evidently I'm as anxious about potential penury as the rest of us.
HH, I think an evening of old-time fiddle and banjo music in Indiana is an excellent idea for the inaugural global Wordie con.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
Mine seem to be about relief and oblivion... I usually wake up feeling relaxed.
November 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
I have a lot of tsunami dreams, perhaps because of my obsessive earthquake monitoring via the USGS global alert feed.
November 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
My condolences on your dire rear.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Note to file: swaddling has never been my objective. Sionnach's calumniations lack objectivity. This page is an object lesson in objectionableness.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Sionnach, I hereby appoint you as the object of my derision.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
I find that epithet objectionable, but have no objection to it.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word someone
Just who does he think he is?
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Yes, and I also object to people on the internet who object to my objections, but not to the objections themselves.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word tongueworm
I'd prefer a tongue, in my earworm.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
What the Bamiyan Buddhas made me realise is, I don't really object to blowing up statues, but I do very much object to the kind of people who want to blow them up.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word hagiolatry
I worship St. Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of mice, so it is a word after all.
November 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word hectopron
I think you'll need a bigger unit to measure what was lost during the gong-show of a transition to this new interface.
November 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word pyewipe
It's a game.
October 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word narb
And of course, "Yarb" is a dog in Gogol's "Dead Souls". Like most dogs, Yarb is four-footed.
October 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word bunburying
Name them.
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word Bunburying
Me too. Listing Capitalized words seems somehow wrong... undemocratic.
What the hell. Crypto-fascist!
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word roomate
Breakfast of champignons!
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word comments
Great idea, hh! I'm surprised nobody thought of that before.
October 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word superstrong
Also, 3rd person singular of the verb 'to supertrong'. 'Ghibbs habitually superstrong the system'.
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word clownery
Ophelia pain, ruzuzu.
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word Animal Spirits are the Invisible Hand.
Ha ha! The funny thing is, it sort of works with both "ate" and "are" (but I'm no economist).
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word botox
Wordplayer: so why are there no square drums?
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word unslinging
If a gunslinger unslings a gun,
what does an unslinger do to have fun?
Does he unholster his gun super-quickly
or does he insert it therein with a sickly
grin and a word of appeasement?
And for his easement,
what's there to bolster a
pseudo-upholsterer,
the last of his cover being blown?
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word Gond
A land on the margins of Middle Earth, ruled by Centaurs.
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word conger
The conga is a sophisticated art form!
October 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word conger
Conger is tasty. I like to eat it with congee.
October 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word my hovercraft is full of eels
I like how in the first visual, the phrases are in the order you'll need them.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word jelly shoes
She doesn't look Belgian to me, in any case.
What is that thing? She looks like she's about to hurl it at a politician.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Belgian kiss
I will confess to a having a fetish for Belgians.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word incent
This vile word incentses me.
October 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word ghost chile
I've been working my way through this guy's Youtube videos. They really are works of art. I love the refrain of "my tongue... back of my throat...".
For relevance, I link to the Bhut Jolokia or ghost chile, but my favourite so far is the Dorset Naga.
October 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word swishcheese
Ha ha!
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word lucky
You're lucky I like the taste of SPAM, dude!
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word unbrick
Black Cat, yeah! A frightening word.
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word yarb
One of my favourite books, "Holiday Tales Christmas in the Adirondacks".
- "Yis, the yarb be good fur a woman when things go crosswise, and the box'll be a great help to her many and many a night, beyend doubt."
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word Rolig
"'Twas rolig! And the slithey toves..."
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word mohr's egg
That is a sorry pun, bilby. And I laughed at it, mohr's the pity.
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word blueberry, pepper, eucalyptus, jerky, and menthol
I have assembled a cutup, but I'm not sure the writing gains anything. Sometimes a plain list is the best medium for poetry.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word blueberry, pepper, eucalyptus, jerky, and menthol
This list is pure poetry. Magnificent ludic stuff. Actually it's something I've thought about before, but I can't improve on your selections.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word barrow-coat
*lies down on railway tracks*
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word barrow-coat
I suppose it's so-named because it makes children easily portable by wheelbarrow.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word get into itness with our gym lasses
Wednesday night Jazzercise with Duns Scotus.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word get into itness with our gym lasses
Boxercise classes with Simone de Beauvoir.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I do not recall writing those comments. Sionnach, it hasn't arrived yet! It's being shipped from the UK I think. Can't wait to get stuck into a mess of arboreal erotica.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I also see ent - so I am going now to have intercourse with trees, I'm going into the vast forests of this province. My stride is such that in two days I will be out of Moot distance, and for those of you who don't know what that means - it was a Beta version called the "Tree". - I am surrounded by the bloody things but soon it will just be one vast plain full of escapists and associated Apple ghouls.
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I also noticed the words ass, urge and gen - and the backword us, which seem to explain everything, When the great middle-class revolt occurs, this page will be the Rosetta Stone. Or do I mean the Golden Bough? Yes, the latter. Sorry Rosetta Stone!
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word pseudol
See also the wildly popular pseudolist, one who engages in this old-time hobby.
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word dive
And then she gafe you the shofe?
October 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
I'd rather be among Old Ones than Great Old Ones.
October 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word pseudol
To yodel pretentiously.
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Google’s Favorite Wordnik Lists
Is a pseudolist one who pseudols?
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word 4M2-200709210919
Frightening stuff!
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word fessways
whelks?!
October 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Godspeed and may life give you sausages
I believe this is a Canadian post-rock band.
October 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word iff
Interesting to see widespread use of this bit of philosophical jargon on the Twitter.
Who said Twitter was an intellectual desert?
October 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word breeze
I'll have the house-sweepings please, waiter.
October 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word oncom
As prolagus alludes, this is an oncomatopoeia.
September 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word vampire pumpkins and watermelons
Imagine being savaged by a watermelon. Bilby I'm surprised you treat the subject so lightly.
September 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word the blues
Citation on blue.
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word blue
"The pilot Juan Fernandez procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for some years resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, that he eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for after a time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a very garrulous barber in the city of Lima."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Seventh
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word appanage
"So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of Peru."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Seventh
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word meow
You're probably right. I prefer it with the 'r' though.
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word meow
Were you looking for mrkgnao, sionnach?
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
*marginalizes bilby's discourse*
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sausage fest
Waiter! There's a girl in my sausage fest!
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sausage party
"So, is new-style atheism the sausage party that media coverage would suggest?"
- Why the New Atheism is a boys' club, guardian.co.uk, 26-9-11.
September 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word fig-pecker
Sure it's not a spoonerism?
September 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
I'm sure he will live Apsley ever after.
September 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word manjak
Yet more CD genius (which I'm sure every manjak of you will appreciate).
September 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word steamer
I'll have the clam, please.
September 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word beef creature
See kip.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word kip
I think that young or small beef creature needs some consolatory brackets.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word rhetoric
Ha ha!
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word cachous
You are the walrus?
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word manicure
Much to love in that example. Jujubes. The odd assortment of "small articles". The smokers 'cachous. The moral "ought". The non-specific "dishonest customer" (or does Punch have a specific dishonest customer in mind?) And of course the muff.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
What is its name?
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Perhaps Melville was looking at penguins the wrong way, i.e. horizontally.
n.b. that is a handsome, and very symmetrical, penguin.
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Sometimes I think of Melville as the evil twin of Charles Sanders Peirce.
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Haven't you noticed how awfully asymmetric penguins are?
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word gony
"Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Third
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
"What outlandish beings are these? Erect as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin; as an edible, pertaining neither to Carnival nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased sea-story of Rodondo."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Third
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word mondegreen
I think there's a name for sentence-length mondegreens like that - a French word maybe?
The big challenge is to find two such sentences which both make sense individually.
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word mote-mote
I've come across these buggers before - I think William Boyd mentions them in an essay on his West African nonage.
September 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word sucurujĂº
Great word and great quotations.
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
I suppose it amounts to the same thing...
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word pickmaw
Sure it's not a plane?
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
Do you like mushrooms?
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word pathogenetic Rabelaisianism
I think this pathogen is already epidemic on Wordnik. We just have to try and infect the rest of the world.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word opportune mouthfeel closes in
You can't fight it!
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
Just watching that scene mentally, and laughing - though not, I'm ashamed to say, out loud.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
I have a question.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
Dan: I wonder if French "lieu" is related to Spanish "lugar", place. Seems reasonable. If so, it's great that "loo" is related to the Spanish - and presumably the Latin - for "place".
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
You Aussies must be terrible prudes if you won't take a shower while your missus lays a cable. I'm surprised.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word knapbottle
It sounds like an advertising slogan. "The bladder champion!"
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word minbar
Ha ha! I might have known!
Actually, it's possible your GR review was how it got on my wishlist in the first place - I can't remember how I heard of it.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word minbar
Speaking of sex and trees, I recently ordered a copy of this novel. Has anyone read it?
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word dwarfism scheduler
The consultant will see you shortly.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word black hawthorn
Thank you for being can-did.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarcocele
I don't see what the Little Prince has to do with Johnson's ballsack.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word cucumber
Johnson's always popping up where you least expect him.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarcocele
This is worse than it sounds. I would have thought a sarcocele to be some quaint Provençal country dance.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
If someone said they were having their bathroom - or their loo - renovated, then I would indeed assume that the crapper was being ripped from its moorings. Very few houses have a room with a bath but no toilet in it these days, so the sense of "bathroom" as distinct from "loo" is obsolete.
Rolig, there is actually a transatlantic distinction re: "go to the bathroom". The sense of "urinate and/or defecate" is pretty much confined to North America, I think. In the UK one would say "the dog crapped in / shat in the kitchen", or in more polite language, "fouled" or "soiled" the kitchen. So I think in this case the Americans take the periphrasis a step further than the Brits do, as they do also by using the ridiculous term "restroom".
I've never heard it called "the head". Surely there is a list somewhere?
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
My money is on the W.C.
But equally, would one call a room with no toilet a "bathroom"? In your scenario, were "loo" to be replaced with "bathroom", I bet most people would still infer that the person was going to the room with the W.C. Ergo, "bathroom" is a synonym of "loo".
The way the English language tiptoes around this subject is pretty pathetic. We require a polite, specific word for the thing itself (crapper or bog, perhaps) and also for the room (dunny, shithouse?) - words which aren't euphemisms. I'm fed up with restrooms and lavatories and washrooms and privies.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word rotavate
See ya later, rotavator.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word cobaltic orchards
Fantastic list, hh!
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
Tall, erect and leguminous, that's me.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
Bilby, in my experience "loo" can refer to both the bathroom and the toilet. One can be on the loo or in the loo.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word GHibbs
lol
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Surtsey
Excellent!
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word earthle
To snuffle, scratch and sniff at the ground. Like a truffle pig.
See earthling.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word ravager
The Vikings were great nourishers. Always suckling babbies, them Norsemen.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
It's a tough call, but I think I'd rather be a tree than a valid scrabble word.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word mind the gap
Yes, part of the auditory landscape of London. The reason it's so well imprinted on the London psyche is not just its repetition but the intonation used in the recorded messages. "Mind... the GAP." There's a suspenseful delay before "the gap" which seems to imply that there is more to the gap than we're being told, or that the "the gap" isn't just the gap between the platform and the train, but a more terrible existential gap into which we shall all of us assuredly fall sooner or later.
September 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word nails
Are you seriously going to leave this comment on every noun which is also a verb??
September 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word Devil's Beef Tub
As a Scottish place name, this may not belong on madmouth's list, but I've had it revolving in my mind for some time now and... well, I wouldn't mind a beef tub of my own.
September 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word aquilon
Oh boy, Ruzuzu, for that you deserve a great, strouting Rabelaisian codpiece, a codpiece so big it obscures your entire person. Ruzuzu that was so much fun. You're lucky there are no Vulcans in Lincoln (at the last census, anyway) because if there were, they'd all be glomming on to you with the mind-melds.
September 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word spermatorrhoea
NSFW but high genius - The Gush, from Chris Morris's legendary Radio 1 show "Blue Jam".
September 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word jimson weed
I omitted it because I felt it was essentially the same as jimson weed. I am a bit of a fascist like that.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word emerald
See mangold for verbing.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word mangold
emeralding - lovely.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word rusty steppe moss
I wonder if there's ever been a man called Rusty Steppe-Moss.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word cow pie
For me this brings to mind neither muck nor moss, but the magnificient horned pies beloved of Desperate Dan.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word succorrhea
I'd rather suck a kiwi or a moa.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
Until something is done about the bile salt, nothing will ever get better.
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word fateful day
The surefire sign of bad writing.
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word hearts and minds
Horrible how this memetic modern-major-general phrase has infected everyday discourse. I heard a cop, naturally, use it on the TV news the other day, along the lines of "our thoughts are with the hearts and minds of the victims..." And today I'm reading a subpar nonfiction book (2010) about earthquakes and I get:
"China's reported success story injected a surge of scientific adrenalin into the hearts and minds of those who saw prediction as the holy grail of the new seismology."
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word parontogenese
You'll have to add a pronunciation so that I don't embarrass myself when I use it.
August 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word parontogenese
This is a superb word. Could it be something geometrical? Some sort of inbred dog, maybe?
August 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word purple loosestrife
Either or both. I've been seeing a ton of Giant Hogweed by the roads lately.
August 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word rattler
Term apparently still in use in the Black Country, bilby, judging from the tweet by @seanoliver86.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word stenoderma
...or your loved ones shall die of lice?
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word stenocephaly
Narrowness of the skull is fine in moderation, but one certainly wouldn't want it to become excessive.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word kitchen table
Wordnet 3.0 living up to its lineage here.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word purple loosestrife
If you're knowledgeable about invasive species, biocon, I'd love to see a list of them (non-scientific names preferred).
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word nemophila
nemophila, nemophila, nemophila. There, I did it. *checks world still turning*
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Dasani
Dasani is pure branding, its success the ultimate expression of form over substance. You could say that about any bottled water, but the meaningless name is the cherry on top.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word perruquier
Especially the one from "Story-Lives of Great Musicians".
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
Thanks for all the recent improvements and bug-fixes.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word skim-colter
Then stop wearing it.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word foyle's further philavery (christopher foyle)
It is precisely by not being "of benefit to our community" that this phrase, and countless others like it, benefit our community.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word The Monty Hall Problem
You should change your answer to door #3, because a goat is better than a car.
Goats have personalities, cars don't. And as dontcry notes, you can get cheese out of a goat, but I never heard of anyone getting cheese out of a car.
August 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word slaw
Same eggcorn here rolig!
July 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word Grindr
Ha ha.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word retromingent
"To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over a greater area. Likely for the same reason, hippos are retromingent-- that is, they urinate backwards."
- From the Wikipedia article on the hippo.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word telephone
Excellent. The first sentence in particular is like a description of some retro-futuristic variation on the ouija board - which is actually how I've always thought of the telephone.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word clivose
Thanks biocon! Fun coinkidink then. Reason I ask is 'cause near where I grew up there was a small precipitous hill called "The Cliffe" or "The Clive". I always wondered where the name came from, and this word seemed to blend the two spellings.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word ruct
c.f. eructate?
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word editor
That should be the Wordnik logo.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word clivose
Interesting. Wonder if it's related to cliff.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word gambiologia
Cool! Yes, kludging would seem to be the best translation.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the user rolig
Thank you!
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the user marklayno
I take umbrage at that.
July 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word editor
editrix is one of my favourite words but I wouldn't call its falling into disuse a "dumbing down of gender". In fact I think I prefer the gender-neutral occupations. It's certainly less hassle than e.g. Spanish where you're always having to add an 'a' if the person happens to be female.
July 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word stridor
"So near the hull did they come, that the stridor or bony creak of their gaunt double-jointed pinions was audible."
- Melville, Billy Budd
July 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word the conical bearing of Gamhey
It sounds like a title by Edward Gorey.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word theodolite
Whilst the layer of oil may well be exceedingly or exceptionally thin, I hope it isn't, as the definition states, excessively so.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word theodolite
The parenthetical snark about "some geodesists" is pure joy.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word menfauxpause
I'm imagining some sort of word-coining committee. Was a quorum present?
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word frango
And don't even think about saying "ab ovo".
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word frango
Portuguese for "chicken". Where the heck does it come from?
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word list idea
A big one - words of unknown origin
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word tappenade
Ha ha!
I was thinking along the lines of cannonade...
July 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word wizard
I'm sure they're very clever (albeit oddly-monikered) fellows, but until they've made the Statue of Liberty disappear I really don't think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as David Copperfield.
July 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word mandrill
What a glorious, consolatory-prophetic comment.
July 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word spectabundal
Or "The twelfth chime of the clock saw the spectabundal acolytes seated tensely around the pentagram, in the guttering light of the candelabra."
July 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word spectabundal
It can't be a verb. I imagine something like: "The cat waited, spectabundal, for the goldfish to swim within reach of its paw".
July 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubby
Also rub-dub.
July 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word umbrage
Were they true, they were highly extenuating, and were they a lie, they they but a mediocre sally - so of course they were heartily well meant.
Your parsnips are not, thank God!, my responsibility. But I will do you the courtesy of my advice: smother the buggers in lard, basted with your own umbrage, and consume without compunction.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word umbrage
But one learns from one's mistakes, n'est-ce pas, mon amie? By alluding to your extensive learning, I was paying you a compliment - so pray return that umbrage, which I believe was withdrawn from the fell swoop page.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word spinach
If they're so succulent, why do they require seasoning and boiling??
Heads need to roll over this one.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word good to go
Yeah, this one raises a small imaginary stormcloud over my head as well.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word aqueduct
My 'a' in both aqua and aqueduct is as in 'cat'.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
anol
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word spinach
CSP always struck me as a meat-and-potatoes man.
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
Klein bottle
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
timothy
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word quesadilla
Is not the mounted liger multifunctional? Satay,
mouth-watering, bone-forming enchiladas, gluten-free
masala, psychoactive potpies (guarded jealously),
unwholesome nontraditional croquettes - you've got to say,
though lesser-known, of common stock he definitely ain't
(and in the world of quesadillas he's a St.)
- by Alfredo Lyddite
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the user hernesheir
Loch Ness Monster? Dr Jamieson?
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the user hernesheir
Parallel universe? String theory?
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word fell swoop
You misunderstand, sionnach, and not for the first time. A particularly ruthless individual may well swoop felly twice, thrice or any number of times, on different targets - but one can't by defintion experience - that is, fall prey to - more than a single such swoop.
I'm really thinking of the head honcho of the Nazgul, the Witch-King of Angmar, on his faithful fell beast here (I think the fell beasts are more or less the fellest swoopers known to man).
Whomp, whomp.
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word frog grenade
A bouncing bomb?
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I've long been in favour of literal timestamps - they're more precise, and sometimes knowing the intervals between posts can add nuance, or help one to interpret an old conversation. I can't see an advantage to "about three years ago" etc.
EDIT: this comment was following one by adrian which has disappeared.
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word kalpa
"I had no longer that feeling of unutterable loneliness; but felt, rather, that I was less alone, than I had been for kalpas of years."
- William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fell swoop
Good question, reesetee. Perhaps if more than one was required, it would no longer be quite so fell?
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Every school had bike sheds back in the day. Behind the bike sheds was the scene of illicit activities like smoking, fighting and smooching. I've never heard of a house with a "bike shed" though - at home I use the back yard for those activities.
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word air douche
The guy sitting in front of you who reclines his seat during meal service.
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word whiskeranto
Also whiskerando.
June 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Great! Thanks.
June 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Saw this one floating by on the main page. Can anyone explain it?
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word mercaptan
"In the mingitorio a stench like mercaptan clapped yellow hands on his face..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word retiform
"...a Chinese hunchback in a retiform visored tennis cap..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach
Feel free to add to penis-related lists.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach
Citation on cucumiform.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word cucumiform
"...the fact that that hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach had sought its pleasure in his wife's body brought him trembling to his feet."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hoik
"...'the film he made out of Alastor before he went to Hollywood, which he shot in a bathtub, what he could of it, and apparently stuck the rest together with sequences of ruins cut out of old travelogues, and a jungle hoiked out of In dunkelste Afrika...'"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word thalavethiparothiam
See note 178.5 in The Malcolm Lowry project for an explication.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word thalavethiparothiam
"'I have,' the Consul said, 'a slight confession to make, Hugh... I cheated a little on the strychnine while you were away.'
'Thalavethiparothiam, is it?' Hugh observed, pleasantly menacing. 'Or strength obtained by decapitation. Now then, don't be careful, as the Mexicans say, I'm going to shave the back of your neck.'"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word trankum
"She was, unlike the Philoctetes, everything in his eyes a ship should be. First she was not in rig a football boat, a mass of low goalposts and trankums. Her masts and derricks were of the lofty coffee-pot variety."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word steamfly
Citation on untumultous.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word untumultous
"...till there was nothing but the black untumultous face of the songless lyre itself, soundless cave for spiders and steamflies..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word carttrack
Citation on whiskerando.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word whiskerando
"There was a lane branching to the left before you reached Jacques' house, leafy, no more than a carttrack at first, then a switchback, and somewhere along that lane to the right, not five minutes' walk, waited a little cool nameless cantina with horses probably tethered outside, and a huge white tomcat sleeping below the counter of whom a whiskerando would say: "He ah work all night mistair and sleep all day!" And this cantina would be open."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word wool
"The strychnine - he had ironically put some ice in it - tasted sweet, rather like cassis; it provided a species of subliminal stimulus, faintly perceived: the Consul, who was still standing, was aware too of a faint feeble wooling of his pain..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word widthways
"They moved on past the front of Cortez Palace, then down its blind side began to descend the cliff that traversed it widthways."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word winze
"The shop, adjacent to the Palace, but divided from it by the breadth of a steep narrow street desperate as a winze, was opening early."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word tabid
"Outside, in the sunlight, in the backwash of tabid music from the still-continuing ball, Yvonne waited..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word reascend
Citation on flexitone.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word tenuity
Contains its own scrabble score (ten).
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word nutant
"The old bandstand stood empty, the equestrian statue of the turbulent Huerta rode under the nutant trees wild-eyed evermore..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word meed
"Alas, but why have I not pretended at least that I had read them, accepted some meed of retraction in the fact that they were sent?"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word pharyngemphraxis
I do worry about this. I have pharyngemphranxiety.
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
Is it true that the longer you bear navel oranges, the more your bare navel oranges?
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
I'd worry that a snack pack may invalidate my nakedness.
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word Herxheimer's reaction
Here's my reaction to Herxheimer's reaction:
"Up at Herk-Heimer Falls, where the great river rushes
And crashes down crags in great gurgling gushes,
The Herk-Heimer Sisters are using their brushes.
Those falls are just grand for tooth-brushing beneath
If you happen to be up that way with your teeth."
- Dr Seuss, The Sleep Book
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner ner ni ner ner
I'll pronounce it as soon as I have a private moment.
My office is relatively secluded, but I wouldn't want the receptionist, who sits not far away, to think I was taunting her.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner ner ni ner ner
A taunting sound.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner
Yes indeed: as in ner ner ni ner ner.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the list animals-with-their-own-paper
We have a book made from elephant dung paper at home. It's one of those books that lie around the house and no one's sure where they came from. I wouldn't call it a classic. Nice texture though.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word doggelganger
Wow! I'm Kylie, a 4 month-old mongrel from Auckland.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word erump
C.f. erumpent.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubymeated
Yes, particularly disturbing/arresting are compounds like meathead, meatball, meatpuppet.
And I agree about fleisch, too - sounds like the noise of meat being processed.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
I want to combine the two.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word strangely orange snack appreciation day
I missed this 12 months ago.
*opens bag of cheez-its*
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word AKA
Aka is not aka i.e, i.e. i.e isn't aka aka.
In the sense quoted by billprice, referring to a simple subject or object, aka works fine. But in the broader sense of "i.e." ("that is to say..." referring to a proposition or conclusion) - a "thought" rather than a "thing" - aka is no alternative.
Better, then, to stick to aka's original meaning, i.e. alias.
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word Ralph Waldo Emerson on Jane Austen
+1
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Down with tweets and images on the comments page!
I would also like to see displayed, along with each list a word appears in, the owner of that list.
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Robert Louis Stevenson on Walt Whitman
Arf! That's superb!
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I like the new look and feel a lot and it seems pretty user-friendly to me.
I've only one beef, but it's a big one - a whole raw steer in fact. I hate the in-your-faceness of the Twitter feeds next to the comments. The tweets are almost always irrelevant, usually moronic, often misspellings or typos, frequently obscene and occasionally offensive, so couldn't they be hidden behind a button somewhere instead of staring us in the face?
Sionnach said somewhere that he sees Wordnik as something of a haven from the turpitude of the internet in general, and it's the same for me. If I want to dip my toe in the cesspool, I can find my own way to Twitter or Youtube, but please don't pipe it onto Wordnik's wonderful comment pages!
Again, considering this is a fairly radical redesign, I'm pleased and impressed. Thank you all for taking such good care of the site and for feeling the same way I do about words - there's nowhere remotely like Wordnik.
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list sugarysweetland
Wow! Yes, epic list.
June 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word Vox Clamantis
I always get this mixed up with Mott's Clamato.
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word plinth
Nice. Did you stand on the plinth for a while?
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word disbursement
Right.
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word clvngodess
It must be Welsh.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list bonebreakers-and-mother-in-law-killers
I knew a bloke in Chile who was called el mataburros by his friends on account of his reckless driving and history of accidents on a particular behairpinned mountain road.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word pyemesis
Who ate all the pyes?
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word machubchub
See comment on cwm. Apparently an Amharic verb, to swish water around in the mouth.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word cwm
I love machubchub!
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Peirce
That's what comes of studying Uranus.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word least-favorite
Someone should at least favorite this.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the user mikeoregon
Hi Mike! I was just in Oregon on vacation. What a great state!
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
It's not one of those Aussie-cliché words which everyone knows are Australian. But that only goes to strengthen its status as a true Australianism (and New Zealandism, baaaa!)
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
Well, I've reinstalled my dickey OED and it's not much help. Apparently it's a back-formation from rorty, adj. (also raughty) "of dubious propriety" (among other senses) which is of course "of obscure origin" (OED-speak for "sorry we haven't a clue").
The only usages it gives of the verb form are as gerunds - rorting used as a noun.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
I can't remember the last time I encountered an Australianism that was totally new to me, like this. I quite often run into regional American slang with which I'm unfamiliar, and it's always exciting when I do, but as a Brit I always identified more closely with Australians (and hence their lingo) than with Americans.
Would love to know the etymology of rort. I bet it's some weird Gaelic thing; that would explain why it's so strange to me.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
Usage by bilby on red or green.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word red or green
Well, rort is entirely new to me! Thanks cobber.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word red or green
If I could only have one or the other: green.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word an ape with angel glands
Angels have glands?
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
And give it someone you love in a cheap vase.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
Picalilli.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word does a dog have Buddha-nature or not
I do sometimes wonder how all these zen jokes have stood the test of time.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
Because he ate with relish the inner organs of annelid worms?
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word fitfall
Erm..
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word radish
I've picked a few picayune specimens already, or rather my kids have. And yesterday we had our first strawberry, surprisingly red after a soggy spring.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word shank
Shank you very much for shat, bilby.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the user madmouth
I was just wondering about that the other day. I work downtown so I can drink coffee, eat sushi, and all manner of other things pretty much whenever I want. My email's on my librarything profile.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word shank
Not just your personal definition. A mishit in a ball game - football, tennis, golf - is a pretty widespread meaning of shank.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
I agree there is a case to be made for the leek.
As for the onion, I believe I'm on record as saying it's my favourite vegetable, and I will champion it in any debate touching on the vegetable universe. And it certainly conveys its dignity (rotundity and hue, remember?) until you cut (or bite) into it, and it assails you with that sweet, stinging prickly perfume and bleeds its pungent juices all over your hard-bitten fingertips... I love it and it may look dignified, but inside it's a punk.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word moresome
Well I've heard of moreish, but this is a new one to me. I think I prefer this one.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-former-island-of-urk
Delightful!
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word ignatius loyola
Ignatius Loyola
would probably have been an ambassador for Coca-Cola
had he been alive today -
but God called him away.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word joan of arc
Joan of Arc
thought "what a lark
talking directly to God is!"
as she dodged the dead bodies.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word joan of arc
That's a good one, sionnach.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word saint francis of assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi
was very fond of geese. He
loved animals not a little. He
ended up being the patron saint of Italy.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list dying-arts
Brilliant, favourited, and all the other nice things people say about lists on wordnik!
June 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
(some html is allowed)June 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
Definitely belongs on a "sounds filthy" list.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
- Ian Vince, Britain's Historic Past, in guardian.co.uk, 26-5-11.June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Bruce Willis?
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word I dislike ampersands
I also approve this message, milos.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word sertanista
Presumably from Portuguese sertĂ£o, wilderness.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word plinth
I'm sorry that sionnach's excellent conversation-starter dropped dead in the water "almost 2 years ago".
I'd make rude gestures in a languid fashion.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Kohlrabi and baby okra may indeed be teh alsome, but they aren't dignified!
Beets are a contender I suppose, as would be most of the sturdier roots, but if it's a combination of brilliance and rotundity you're after then you're going to be running up hard against the majestic pumpkin.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
I think the sporting adage "form is temporary, class is permanent" applies. If we're going to speak of dignified vegetables then the dignity must be enduring, not merely a passing fad or foible.
Although I don't especially like the taste of them, I do find artichokes especially dignified. They have such stability, and also a sort of primness about them, like a maiden aunt in a great skirt (although like all vegetables, they yield readily to a salacious reading).
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
On closer reading, it's not the Prof who's stopped up.
That's a relief!
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Always insist on a sheathed cuke.
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
"...a tall, stopped man..."
I'm sorry to hear about the Prof's internal congestion. No doubt D van der P is somehow behind this.
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the list memories-of-hk
That's why you're so necessary - you're like a bot crawling wordnik for good stuff.
And I mean that in a good way - some of my best friends are bots.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
O cornball ye faithful?
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
Ridiculous. Every potential wordie list, etc.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
Can't believe hernesheir or ruzuzu hasn't included this on some panoptical corn-themed list.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list extended-ipa-letters
First class froggery.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word full online keyboard
I'll save you the trouble and bracket red tube-wanking homies for you, shall I madmouth?
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word nutmeg
Typically accomplished with an exultant cry of "nuts!" or "megs!" from the successful party.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word menfauxpause
I quite agree rolig; it's your last objection that really makes this word an utter failure. You can't just stitch together any two words and have a witty portmanteau - there has to be a verbal vetting, too.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list memories-of-hk
Thanks for alerting me to so many exquisite lists, ruzuzu. Your *favorited* is truly a wordnik kitemark.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word toroidal group motion
Citation on klinotaxis.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word klinotaxis
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word I once ran over a baby crocodile with my bicycle
Probably no harm done if it was just the once?
June 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word autogarphing
The World According to Garp Hing?
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-red-ink-ran-dry
In my (library) copy of Simplicissimus, tr. Mike Mitchell, the word gaol was repeatedly given as goal.
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the list spelling-bee-final-round
Bloody hell, what a list! I think I could more or less define 10 of these, and probably spell about 15-20.
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word hemorrhoid cream puffs
Treatable with a preparation h bomb.
May 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word molotov cocktail waitress
After days of deliberation, I've decided this is my favourite STF (or at least the one I most want on a mug - I was very fond of athlete's foot fetish as well, not to mention hemorrhoid cream puffs).
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
For sure Duffel van der P's comments were coming with the notification emails until about a week ago - now I have to actually look at the list to get my daily fix, which sort of makes the emails redundant.
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list first-lists
I discovered Wordie while browsing the "also on" drop-down list on Librarything. The first word I listed, and still one of my favourites, was donkeyman, which I'd found in a novel not long before. My second might have been poopyhead.
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word weimaraner
Potential Wordnik tagline alert!
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
Yes, I've no doubt you'd be well into "follow-through" territory with that...
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
Simultaneous pouting and snorting, that is. Not pea coffee.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
The last time I tried that, I farted.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
I was only joking. Although it certainly is uncannily spammish.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
SPAM.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Thanks prol, I noticed it as soon as I logged in this a.m!
I've also noticed in the last few days that the explanatory comments posted with each wotd are no longer showing on the notification emails.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
How do I see a list of word-of-the-day lists? Is there some central place from where I can access them?
I just can't get to grips with the feature, feel like I'm missing something obvious.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list how-to-make-a-facebook-game
dope wars is the only one here that I've played - it's a classic from pre-Facebook days.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list first-lists
I'm sure you used to be able to view a given Wordnik's activity, i.e. everything they've done, listing, commenting, favouriting, tagging etc., and click through back to the very beginning. But now I can't find it.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word giblich
Despite having a name like a Lovecraftian horror.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word giblich
I wonder what a giblich looks like. It's probably cute.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list torture
I did a "first words" list here which is quite revealing, I think.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-clouds-do
Adorable.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word Tim Tam
Was that a listed side-effect? If not, you should certainly sue.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stale
Presumably the same as stile in the sense of hurdle.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word shufti
Most often in the construction "have a shufti". Proper slang though, strictly verbal.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stang
(unicode & # 3 8 3 ;) (minus the spaces)
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stang
Pray replace your f's with long eſſes!
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list torture
iron maiden? brazen bull? Those may be straying into the realm of execution, I suppose. Still, there's an extensive grey area.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word very
Very interesting.
But I think the reason that employing very is often seen as poor style is not that it fails to convey what is meant, but that it does so abstractly, by - *flicks through Creative Writing 101 Textbook* - telling instead of showing. Better to say that reesetee's desk is large enough to accommodate a nine-hole golf course than simply to say that it is very large.
Also perhaps because it's prone to overuse. However I do like it in its older sense of genuinely, verily: the "very gentil parfait knight".
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list masthead-staples
picayune!
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list three-wishes
Fun list!
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, and jam today
See jam tomorrow.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word witchwich
Bread, witch, bread. Pickles optional.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word whitwitch
I suppose that would be a witchwich.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word whitwitch
A witch sandwich?
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word wet dog
Well, that's a matter of preference. But whether it smells good to you or not, surely you'll admit that it smells better than it tastes.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word deciding not to read that Wisława Szymborska poem
It's not a bad poem, but it ends too soon.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word deciding not to read that Wisława Szymborska poem
What were the poems about numbers, zuze?
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word whilst
Yes, definitely rolig. I would be very surprised to hear whilst used in normal speech by someone under the age of 35, and in a young person it does sound quite plummy and public school, that is if it's not an obvious affectation. However - and the more I think about this the less certain I am - it's the sort of word you also hear on the lips of working-class pensioners in pubs - especially, and here it gets bizarre, old women.
So there you go, unreliable anecodtalism at its finest from someone who hasn't lived in the UK for seven years.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the user Wordplayer
Yes, quite an honour! I had never heard of a spelling bee until after I left school , and I bitterly regret not being able to take part in one. They look like fun.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word calin
Ha! Love the "apparently" in CD's defintion.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word planking
I had a suspicion I might not be first to this gem.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word plank
"'This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,' Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett told reporters.
The man and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home."
- Yahoo! News, 15-5-11.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word whilst
Speaking as a subject of Her Majesty, I can confirm that whilst, amongst and amidst are in common use in speech and informal writing, although in all three cases I think the non -st forms predominate.
Personally I don't like and never use whilst; the other two I'm neutral on and cannot with certainty deny that they occasionally pass my lips.
Actually, on reflection, I think I prefer amidst to amid, but among to amongst - purely arbitrary I suppose.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word writer's block
In answer to oroboros's original question, and forgive me the tardy response: no. She should persevere and pay no heed to the neighsayers.
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word nipplewort
Did you milk it?
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Hurrah! Now add 119 favourites, 81 lists - or better still, 181, and preferably 67 pronunciations before you comment again - but I'm sure you can do that in the next 12 hours or so. You are unhesitatingly the mainstay of Wordnik, and that makes you a mainstay of my mind.
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user yarb
Visiting the parentals in North Wales with pitstops in London at either end.
May 8, 2011
yarb commented on the user yarb
Hurrah! Now I'm treating myself to a well=deserved vacation (really: I'm in the UK this week).
May 7, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
protean seemed appropriate for an actor - though in hindsight not as appropriate as playful.
Would like to hear the five accents pronouncing professor von schmartzenpanz.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I knew Century Dictionary (for some reason I'm loath to abbreviate this) would be your downfall, ruzuzu. I do like a game of scrabble although I'm long out of practice.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
For what it's worth, I chose od because I like it and I thought short words would be in short supply.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Yes he did. And playful is another one I'm kicking myself over (I'm kicking my knees, in case you were wondering). Too clever by half. A bit like froggo's stripper in the last one.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word halbard
Usually halberd, I think.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Ruzuzu, I'll take the mug if you'll accept the
Sisyphean taskprivilege of masterminding the next edition a year hence. Incidentally it was the looniness that gave your lunette away to me.And I can't believe I didn't get distingue! Shoddy lapse.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I assumed a mortsafe was one of the many tools frogapplause uses to create frogapplause.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I've just realised that in true Eurovision-fashion, the winner of ID the 'nik is required to compere the next installment. Because this daunting challenge outweighs the allure of the mug, and because it would certainly prolong the
agonyentertainment, I am happy to continue with a playoff.May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
*investigates emergency sources of umbrage*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I mean the playoffs would be fun but I'm not giving up on that mug without exhausting every legal avenue first.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
But hernesheir didn't get credit for his own word.
Recount please!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Hang on a minute. As far as I can see, 'zuzu got these right: blafferty, erinmckean, fbharjo, frindley, PossibleUnderscore, seanahan, wordnicolina. It's seven, no?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I demand a recount. *lawyers up*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I call shenanigans! Surely 'zuzu only has seven correct?!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Not so fast, ruzuzu!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
I think I agree about espresso.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
It's squeaky bum time.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
I like the taste of coffee, but the smell is better. I'm really struggling to think of things that taste better than they smell. Beer, maybe. Wine, sometimes. And some relatively odourless foods like confectionary... but there isn't much.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
sinistral was a tough one to assign; there were four or five possibilities.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
*applauds*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
That doesn't mean I'll scoff anything with a 'c' and an 'l' in it.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
This is exciting isn't it? It's like Eurovision, as sionnach says, with all the high camp and none of the Balkanised political skulduggery.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I just looked up calepin.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
But no, I've never tasted celery.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Hork! The Herald Angels Sing
Excellent.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word symphony horkestra
Good one.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
Depends what you mean by "taste".
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
Practically everything smells better than it tastes.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word you're something of a horkdog, aren't you
A connection made by prolagus on that very page!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Odds of at least one correct at random please, sionnach?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Oooh! That is frankly embarrassing.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word will hork for food
Brilliant!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Is there a list for hork-puns? If not, should there be?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
horking
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I was suspicious of tear-resistant but it was a case of following the herd. I'd rather be wrong and have company than right and lonely.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word stepped on a little frog
I never stepped on a frog but when I was a about the same age I joined a friend in placing worms on our bike chains and spinning the cranks.
Disgusting I know - what a way to foul up your drivetrain.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word address
lol - that sionnach, always making a fool of himself
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word address
wtf
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word bumblepuppy
"Playing bumble-puppy with Minnie Beebe, niece to the rector, and aged thirteen--an ancient and most honourable game, which consists in striking tennis-balls high into the air, so that they fall over the net and immoderately bounce; some hit Mrs. Honeychurch; others are lost. The sentence is confused, but the better illustrates Lucy's state of mind, for she was trying to talk to Mr. Beebe at the same time."
- E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word hurt-bush
Citation on last.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word last
"He praised the pine-woods, the deep lasts of bracken, the crimson leaves that spotted the hurt-bushes, the serviceable beauty of the turnpike road."
- E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
I'm struggling to find the sense of last being used here.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the user sionnach
It's bloody terrifying.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Thank you, Ruzuzu
Citation on country frolics.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
Wonderful. It has all the innocent bucolic lubricity of Nabokov's Ada, with none of the emotional constipation. Thank you, Ruzuzu.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word 227
I tried to at the time, but couldn't access it for some reason. Could you supply?
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word sexy prime triplet
For example, 227, 233 and 239.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Abbottabad
Definitely up there with WTM!
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word 227
Thanks for the sexy prime triplet.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Ha ha! I had sionnach as boggy due to a tenuous Irish - "bog Irish" connection (not that he is any such thing - purely a semantic connection)...
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
First thing I did was try to identify the seven (c)red-herrings, i.e. the seven words I thought most likely to have been thrown into the mix by gangerh.
Then there were two or three match-ups that I was certain of, so I filled those in. Then it was a case of eliminating all the "no-way!" combinations and seeing what was left that worked. I also took account of other people's choices, going with the mass of opinion in a couple of cases where I might otherwise have chosen differently.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word colepixy
Ha! Another classic Century Dictionary moment.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word unsigmatic
Or, bizarrely to me, strong aorist. I suppose it's "strong" because it doesn't need the sigmatic crutch?
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word urzuzu
I read that as an x-ray of a bowl of red grapes sitting on his foot.
May 2, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Based on ruzuzu's late change, I've made two of my own.
May 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word kallisti
Yep, dative (i.e. for, to) singular feminine superlative of An. Gk for dessert.
May 1, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I would like a way to mass-import Ruzuzu's favourite words into my own favourites list.
How about mass-pilfering tools in general - for lists, I mean? A tool that lets you copy the contents of one list, whether yours or someone else's, straight over to another one.
April 28, 2011
yarb commented on the list best-cheeses
You have good taste in cheese.
Wait... Laughing Cow?!
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word ample bosom buddies
Breast friends.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word Cockaigne
*Only the phoney... know the way I feel tonight...*
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word gorm
A valuable commodity in "Identify the Wordienik".
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Change my ming? Right, I'll change my ming to "mind".
blafferty, alas no. Some people just like to be helpful.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm putting this up here but will probably change my ming at some point:
bilby -- slopseller
blafferty -- ascian
chained_bear -- mediæval
dontcry -- tear-resistant
erinmckean -- calepinerienne
fbharjo -- chrestomatic
frindley -- alexis
frogapplause -- mortsafe
gangerh -- emordnilap
hernesheir -- hidelugged
mollusque -- systematic
oroboros -- protean
PossibleUnderscore -- balsamaceous
Prolagus -- harlequin
pterodactyl -- present
reesetee -- sinistral
ruzuzu -- lunette
seanahan -- prodigal
sionnach -- boggy
Wordnicolina -- greenhorn
Wordplayer -- playful
yarb -- wodge
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm also having trouble with hernesheir.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Trickiest wordniks to identify: fbharjo and prolagus.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word perp walk
If a police officer sits the suspect down beforehand and assures him that everything will be fine, is that a pre-perp walk pep-talk?
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Not much love for alexis, I notice.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Or like Masterblaster from "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome".
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
The mind/body duality made flesh.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
No wait. bilby's breadfruit vendor.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Noam Chomsky?
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Perhaps he felt intimidated by Ray Mears.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
No need for get-out-of-jail-free cards: I put MacGyver in there with you.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word Cockaigne
Only if it's phoney.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word dor
I'd like a full lexicon of the spicular elements of sponges, so that I can incorporate as much of it as possible in a sonnet.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Just noticed prolagus also provided a spreadsheet - well, there's another one for "systematic", ha ha. Thank you also, p, though I went with the first one I saw.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubber
Amusing about rubber launching her, though. Brings to mind ballistics. Wheeee!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubber
I assume it's referring to cash crops?
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word hotch
The novel that is, not just the citation.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word hotch
"At certain times of the year, particularly after the rainy season, they velvet mites'>velvet mites proliferated, and the grass around our house hotched with them."
- William Boyd, Memories of the Sausage Fly (collected in Bamboo).
Reading that Lanark citation from two years ago makes me want to go back and read it again.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word tenalach
Literally?!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word eructation
I like wiktionary's erumpent blast and earthy depths as well. Well done wiktionary!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Thanks blafferty for the spreadsheet, saved me some toil there. I used to love those logic puzzles when I was a kid.
I intend to cogitate for as long as I'm allowed, because this is a real noggin-botherer - as the attempts at guessing my word so far suggest.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word fraureichtgebahr
A recipe for disaster in my experience.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word cat-harping
Pure joy.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word ludicrosity
I agree with duckbill on this one. Ludicrosity makes me cross-eyed.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
You could have called the child Ham-let.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word kizzz
Cute!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
Ha ha!
Wordnik is all about the comedy today.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
Ha ha! Love the wine/swine pun! I've been to Denny's only once, while my wife was giving birth to our second kid, and it was crap, but this ad has convinced me to try again.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Nitinol
Ha ha!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Nitinol
I want a bike made out of this.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Babbitt
Just because it rhymes, I suspect.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Babbitt
Undoubtedly John Cabot, the discoverer of Newfoundland.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word wax-paper
Good morning, dontcry.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word niveous
Is it closer to white, or brown?
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Prescriptivism... bloody hell. *shakes head*
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word fetch
Or a sloth. No, you want something dynamic for your fetch. I'm glad mine's a pigeon.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Honestly, all this guff about "word-making". As if English was cold-forged by some mythical Wayland Wordsmith in a halcyon age of morphological innocence.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word fetch
I haven't read those books (yet), but the idea is a very old one.
.Wouldn't it suck if your fetch was a sheep or something.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Bad Greek, but perfectly good English!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word hippocracy
Rule by horses.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word manege
triage?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word sidekick
It certainly is a rip-snorter of a word.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word centre
I think so.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word typosquatters
You see this "fake word" allegation from time to time. How is it possible to have a fake word?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word front the money
Yeah, I've heard both front and put up used with both cash and money in both the UK and North America. Not sure there's much of a regional distinction here.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word queer as Dick's hatband
I remember my Grandfather saying this!
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word gout
Thanks!
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word paludious
This one's nice and obscure.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word outdacious
Meaning wot?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word noogie
When I was at school we called this a donkey scrub.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word centre
My guess is it was one of the spellings regularized by Webster - it would have come into English from French, presumably, hence originally "-re".
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
No, I don't think it does. But there are certainly two distinct kinds of nostalgia: a personal one, and a more communal one, perhaps harking back to a supposed golden age, a traditional culture or just an earlier way of life, all of which could date from hundreds or thousands of years ago. This I suppose is what benw is trying to identify.
For example, I sometimes feel a pang of nostalgia for the Cretaceous.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
benw - interesting. I don't know the answer but I'll say this: nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Thanks for pristinity, moll - another good offering, but to me at least pristine implies not only unbroken, virgin, but also perfectly clean and uncontaminated. In the end I just went with unbrokenness - it was not important anyway, just a lame comment on a blog.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word unhood
Definition: the state of being un; not being something.
(yoinkage paid)
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word unhood
*double yoink*
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word typosquatters
damn, you, arby!
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word in all my born days
"I'd been plugging away for many hours when there came a sound I'd never heard the like of in my born days. Eh, I won't forget that."
- C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
(am reading it to my daughter)
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word gout
Nice citation! What was the work?
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the user writer723
Hi writer - just to let you know there's no need to leave definitions on common words, since there are multiple dictionary definitions accessible under the "definitions" section of each word's page (top left).
April 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list cause-and-effect
To quote ruzuzu - *favourited*
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Is that a slight, moll?
Thanks, integrity is the best suggestion yet. It's slightly diluted by its ethical connotation, which I would say is dominant, but it might be as close as I'm going to get.
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word mollusque baugh
*slurps on caesar*
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word TP-82
Awesome - talk about killing two birds with one stone!
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list recently-sniffed
Our house is small, and garageless, so I have to keep my bikes in a windowless storage room upstairs. The room smells unmistakeably of bike - I suppose it must be a blend of grease, rubber and (to my shame) dirt.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
That sounds like just the tool I need for raking the pebbles from my brook!
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
I appreciate your efforts ruzuzu, ineffectual as they are.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
??
CD has a bunch of adjectival and verbal senses listed under "noun" - but it's not a noun. And anyway, by far the stronger meaning is "healthy, fit, sprightly".
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Nah, I need a noun. Like "unbrokenness", but not so awkward.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Financial Firm Ltd.
Ha ha. It's like they used a spam template and forgot to change the placeholders.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Is there an abstract noun meaning "the state of being intact, of being not yet broken"? Basically, "intactness"?
"Wholeness" and "completeness" won't do, because they connote quantity.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list places-that-sound-great
Thanks for the plug 'jo, tho' that list is really more yours than mine! Don't think I haven't noticed and marvelled at your ongoing additions to it.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word also
Yeah, I've heard a few people use it like that. It's not a regional thing as far as I'm aware, more like an affectation.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Brogan
Something needs to be done about people looking up capitalized words and then complaining when the usage examples relate to proper nouns (or "proper names"). There needs to be some way of informing people that wordnik is case-sensitive, or else someone needs to review the obliviots and cull them.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word acid-wash denim
I always thought they employed professional jeans-wearers to wear the jeans until they acquired that "distressed" look.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list verbs-that-are-better-for-me-than-other-verbs
Nice list!
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word coriander
All too often while shopping for groceries, I find myself plunging my face into the biggest bunch of coriander I can find and inhaling until my lungs are swollen with the vivifying, coppery, earthy fragrance.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
(Not that I'd ever presume to speak for ruzuzu).
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Recommend? I would insist upon it!
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word Ghazi
*facepalm*
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
How long have I to think of a word, g-love?
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word brimful of hellcat fury
Brillliant!
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word park the bus
I first heard this used by José Mourinho when he was at Chelsea.
"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it's not fair for the football we played."
- Mourinho, September 2004.
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word perfect
You're looking at a list of definitions, not synonyms. And yes, I can actually imagine exclaiming "Oh! Bisexual!" every time something is perfect. I think it would be funny - although I'm sure the novelty would wear off.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Fabulous prize. I'm extra motivated this time.
Are you going to throw in a few red herrings, too?
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list musical-titles-in-translation
Reminds me of Gavin Ewart's semantic limericks.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
I think I might have got it mixed up with Shakespeare's "country matters".
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
I honestly thought this was a euphemism for houghmagandy, or at least Ugandan discussions.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Sorry, I meant which, not what.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Precisely, madam.
So - what blog are these quotes from?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word unprepared for ID the Wordienik
Is there some sort of preparatory regimen we should be doing? If so, I share your secret.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word vague rainbow colors of anxiety
Reminds me of that great Hotel Hallways blog, now sadly defunct.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word scintillation
CD getting cosmic on our asses.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
No need to be rude.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Which blog?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word lapsana
*throws away porn collection, grabs musty old copy of CD*
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
No, I don't want worts on my nipples, thank you.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word titin
There is an even shorter form: spam.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word yonks ago
yonks
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word when I were a lad
yonks ago
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word alehouse
Yes, we used to use this jocularly when I were a lad.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word vague rainbow colors of anxiety
So no more "the current threat level is orange"?!
Airports won't be the same.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word totology
Toto - small, black, and a dog, is, in toto, a small black dog.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word patchwork madras
Sounds ghastly. I'd rather be turned into a newt.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word awesome
Tua can play at that game!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word unknots
Bilby!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word aam
How much, pray?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sacks spiral
Sort of butt-like.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list pigment-of-your-imagination
Hope you don't mind my adding blue (a mixture of black and blue).
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list pigment-of-your-imagination
Fantastic idea for a list!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word water-pump
*heads for bar*
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user reesetee
I mean Wordnik...
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user reesetee
Yeah, nut yourself reesetee! If you will insist on doing the life thing, then you're going to have this problem on Wordie.
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word water-pump
You should do stand-up, ruzuzu.
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word decorticated
I read a novel recently - "An Ice-Cream War" by William Boyd - which features an entrepreneurial sisal farmer whose prized possession is his mighty mechanised decorticator.
And now this!
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word rose hip
What sort of cup do you use for your jelly?
April 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cup
Looking forward to being pleasantly cup in about nine hours' time.
April 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word brieve
Worthy of a dedicated list.
April 7, 2011
yarb commented on the list test--29
Well, I think it's a very nice test.
April 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word hugger-mugger
If this word comes from Irish Gaelic then I'm a Dutchman's uncle.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word omen
Plural of Oman.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarlacc
Not sure he needed the "slowly", though.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarlacc
Threepio waxes lyrical!
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word soy
My favourite scene from all the Star Wars movies.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word debt
Well done, now work on the other 'd' words. You will notice they also differ from each other.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word starshine
Hmm. I can't say I felt ravished by Proust.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word soy
stout... erect... stem... hairs... sauce... oil expressed... residue... fertilze(r)...
Century dick-tionary.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word loosies
Cigarettes used to be sold singly by many corner shops in England in the 80's. Of course the biggest customers were kids.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word carnal
I'm carnal and proud!
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word moran
Harrrr!
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word moran
I didn't know you were married, sionnach.
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the user wkaren77
Got any SPAM lightening tips?
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
...and why they spent all that time sitting around in cafes instead of standing proudly at the bar like ordinary folk.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
Yes, that's the idea. Ou sont les culottes d'antan?
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
True, but you have to have had pants - or the idea of pants - to be without them. It's very French actually, being and nothingness and all that palaver.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
Wasn't there a "panvocalic pants" list somewhere?
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word kitchy
Spelled kitschy.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
I'm still totally baffled about stake.
North American sports reporting has countless weird synonyms for score.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
Ha!
Obviously it's out of context, but translation: Bunbury (a player) scored for Kansas City, giving them a 1-0 lead over the Whitecaps.
It was a cracking game - wish I hadn't turned the T.V. off with 25 minutes to go and the 'caps down 3-0. They ended up drawing 3-3 with two goals in stoppage time.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
"Bunbury staked Kansas City to a 1-0 lead in first-half stoppage time."
- Whitecaps stage amazing comeback to salvage tie, cbcsports.ca, 2-4-11.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word quellazaire
Well, this is enticingly exotic - where's it from?
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
The community, p? Why, it's nothing but a mess of squirrel headed nubbins that all hell couldn't shuck.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word a mess of squirrel headed nubbins that all hell couldn't shuck
It should be the site tagline.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word hoover
It's what's for dinner!
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word hoover
I'm no expert on CSS scripts, but wouldn't that be hovver?
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word a mess of squirrel headed nubbins that all hell couldn't shuck
The Wordnik "community" in a nutshell.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word umsteen
What's this, a mis-saying of umpteen?
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the list stars-is-gods-lantern
This list is all gold! What collection are they from?
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word clabber cheese
Presumably made from clabber milk.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word clabber milk
See also clabber cheese.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word thatchy
See also spartina.
March 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word thriftspiration
As if anyone is ever going to actually use this gibbering chimera of a word.
March 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word affraycation
War.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word dismaycation
A staycation which doesn't live up to its exotic promise.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word or next offer
I'm pretty sure o.n.o. is "or nearest offer" - maybe that's a Britain / Ireland difference.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word TSAcation
Like a staycation, but with mandatory groping.
"The current threat (to your personal space) level has been assessed as: red".
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word draycation
Like a staycation, but with a carthorse for company.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word Kraycation
A holiday in the East End of London in the 1960's.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word species
Or lent by Len to Moses.
After all this discussion, I still favour the s.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word quotes
Lol
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word pump head
Great Scott! This is a good one.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word species
Just be thankful that the species the ecology of which you're talking about isn't itself the property of Moses.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word praycation
A vacation taken only on holy days.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word awaycation
Like a staycation, but instead of staying at home, you go away somewhere.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word species
Well, with lens, it's easy: "lens's" indicates singular, "lenses'" plural. The problem with species is that unlike lens, it's plurale tantum.
I favour "species's" when the genitive singular is intended. Because that apostrophe-ess is a marker of gen. s., whereas the ess-apostrophe denotes gen. plural. But maybe it's not so obvious to other people?!
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word tirade
You're doing great, kevo!
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word species
But it doesn't sound wrong to me.
The meaning should be clear from the context, but if not, then "species's" - at least to my ear - is clearly singular, whereas "species'" could refer to the ecology of one, or more than one, species.
March 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word dwarf
Another corker from the C.D. I like the specificity of "persons".
March 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word species
I think the spell-checker is being overly prescriptive, and it's really a matter of taste.
Personally I would use the s here: "the species's ecology".
Of course you could always rephrase: "the ecology of the species..."
March 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
As clean as a brand new fishplate?
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
Trainspotting really is a filthy habit. A habit with many innocent victims.
By the way, I'm sure reesetee will be delighted to play his ████████ for us.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
I suppose you were deaf to the anguished cries of the tiny little passengers? And the miniature guard, gibbering in his caboose.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
Have you potted many trains, ruzuzu?
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
It seems perverse to be redacting harmless words like ██████ and ████████, while trainspotting remains there for all to see.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
Yes, and be sure to bring plenty of ██████.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
Hurrah!
Why not come trainspotting with me some time?
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fishplate
I've known since the age of about five.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the list amber-words
mete
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word mete
No, I'm pretty sure it counts as an amber word.
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word Harvey and Zukoff 2011 PLoS ONE
Excellent!
March 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sporting lint
Related to boracic lint = skint?
March 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word debunk
To get out of bed.
I like the peg-legged sound - debunk, debunk, debunk.
March 25, 2011
yarb commented on the list snarl-words
I can see how the list description is confusing.
Edit: I edited it to be less discombobulatory.
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the list snarl-words
n.b. I think your kitten and your hack need switching around - unless you have some sort of demon kitten, and the world's most mellifluous hack.
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the list snarl-words
Yes, but when has that ever stopped you?
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word snarl words
I second that nomination.
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word snarl words
I like the idea of snarl words vs. purr words. How about a list?
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word video sniffing
Subversion? My conformity is more subversive than their subversion.
March 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word incandescently
Oooohhh...
That's a doozy!
March 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word cigarette girl
I guess because they work in gloomy places - clubs, movie theatres, etc?
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word fairest
Excellent. Next time my fai need a rest, I will know where to put them.
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Fair enough. Excellent service, thank you Mr P!
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word hoddle
Hoddle and Waddle.
Two of the most gifted English footballers of their generation (sadly the same wasn't true of their vocal talents).
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word cigarette girl
Well I suppose it's preferable to a jock strap.
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Is there an adjective expressing "between siblings"? E.g. using "inter-", like internecine?
I'd rather it was gender nonspecific, i.e. not using "frater-" or "soror-".
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word cigarette girl
Thanks zuze - it sure is nice when someone else checks Wikipedia for you!
Can you believe I'd never heard of Tiparillos, either?
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word scutch
Ha ha!
"I've long thought about making a list of old flax processing terms."
Classic hh quote there!
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word cigarette girl
Could someone explain please?
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word donkey-botherer
A reference to the donkey-rides traditionally taken by tourists on Blackpool's beach.
n.b. not a surprising quote when you see the guy's name...
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word childbirth
There is something miraculous about a turd, now that you mention it.
March 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word harrassed
The second one you list, but with the first vowel as in "hat".
March 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word perigee-syzygy
...hence supermoon I suppose, although that seems quite dumb itself.
March 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word dr
Q.E.D...
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word dr
Ahem. Now that I'm getting over the old internet "I thought he was female" shock, that's a rather odd linguistic foible you have there isn't it? If it's no trouble for you, I probably would pronounce it "tricycle" rather than "chricycle".
What confuses me (other than your gender) is the implication in your penultimate sentence that "jream" is the common pronunciation. It sounds pretty weird to me.
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
Just noticed uncellophaning on a citation I left two years ago.
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word uncellophaning
Citation on crapulous.
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word dr
You're male?
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the user bass_fishing
Would you like some SPAM with that bass?
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word knobhead
Can't believe this wasn't listed. One of my favourite casual insults.
March 18, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Yes, great idea. I might sign up to more than one list if it didn't mean a daily deluge.
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word shamrock my world
Only one eighth? I reckon that makes you slightly less Irish than average.
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word laughing gas evenings
Reminds me of jungle juice sundays (whatever they are).
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word beanbag bullet
re: the rubber flails, don't you do that sort of thing chained_bear?
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word beanbag bullet
I'm just imagining a corps of medieval peacekeepers equipped with rubber flails and duck-down morning stars.
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word beanbag bullet
I just love the idea of bullets designed to minimise injury. Of course rubber bullets have been around for ever, but I always thought the same about them.
I mean if they're so good at minimising injury, why aren't they used by paramedics?
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word horse-chestnut
Clackers is new to me - looks like an executive stress toy! It's got none of the naked aggression and potential for embarrassment that conkers has. But my favourite thing about conkers was nurturing a winner, just as a promoter guides the career of a champion boxer - you'd train it, and hype it, and only bring it out when you thought the potential glory to be gained not only outweighed the risk of defeat, but was substantial in and of itself - which was increasingly rarely. In the meantime you'd be throwing your one-ers and two-ers into battle, trying whether they had what it took.
And there was the whole technical side, which others really got into, with dousing and baking and vinegaring, and different ways of drilling and different kinds of string - but in my experience, none of that alchemy really helped; in fact a good hard conker needed no treatment to beat any number of treated ones.
March 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word tableity
Ha ha! I don't know what to say!
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the user yarb
Marvelous! I've half a mind to join you in a re-read, although this sudden interest in Greek is taking up more time than I intended it to at the outset.
hh: it's always a pleasure to have one's lists pillaged, especially by such a luminary as you.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word dot matrix
Younger sister of daisy wheel.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word daisy wheel
A delightful term, this.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word spud
I had a lovely couple of baked spuds for dinner last night.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word horse-chestnut
See also horse chestnut.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word horse chestnut
Comments on horse-chestnut.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word horse-chestnut
One of my very favourite trees - shady, strong, and genial, with that exquisite contrast between the spikiness of the husk and the smoothness of the seed. And fond childhood memories of scouring the lanes and fields for prime conker material.
March 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word mulch volcano
Citation on mulch volcanoes.
March 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word ta muchly
Yeah!
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word I think to myself
What a predictable world?
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word pocket calculator
Jawohl!
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word at first I was afraid
Petrified?
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word cocktail bar
You were working as a waitress in one?
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word ta muchly
It was a catchphrase of the obnoxious Arnold Rimmer in juvenile Britcom "Red Dwarf" in the early 1990's.
March 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word sand-wave
Go and read Rabelais, right now!
March 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word dolsot bulgogi bibimbap
I'm surprised you have time for cocktail dresses and O'Brien what with all the Rabelais you're reading.
March 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word dolsot bulgogi bibimbap
Ha, ha, ha, as I believe they say in the novels of Patrick O'Brien.
March 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Fat Tuesday
Ha ha!
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
Then why not get some nice ones?
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word dolsot bulgogi bibimbap
Yum! For some reason whenever I see bibimbap on a menu I think of Samuel Backett.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
I would, and I would hazard a guess that from time to time you chat with your pants.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Same problem with IE8.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word jailer of peonies
Why do you hate freedom?
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
What a charming story. But talking to them? That's ant-thropomorphism.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word barbet
I'm a bold man, Haskins. Have you ever tried catching a berry with your beak? I have and it's not at all difficult.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word ganglionic
I still come back to this quote quite often - i.e., the second sentence.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
I agree, PU, and perhaps this is the right time to insert a link to my ants and men list.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
But the cockroaches will slaughter the ants when it comes to a rumble.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-weve-seen-moved-by-ants
As opposed to unelapsed time?
(I am enjoying the list and comments, though).
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word citriculture
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when life refuses you lemons, grow potatoes instead - they're just as tasty.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word revere
Why would they fear the name?
It's not as though it's a scary name, like Azathoth or something. Although I can see how the ALLCAPS would have intimidated bronze-age herdsmen.
March 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word temperament
Bear in mind it's Marlowe, not Conrad, speaking here - the repetition for emphasis sounds natural enough to me.
March 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word This account either doesn't exist or isn't public.
Love that frog (but prefer the blog to the cartoon).
March 7, 2011
yarb commented on the user pikachu
I'm very much enjoying your Heart of Darkness citations - one of my favourite stories - keep 'em coming!
March 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word quesodilla
I think this spelling is far superior.
March 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word BLT on a roll
You may be right, amigo - but still it riles me.
Right now I'm desperately craving a BLT. With avocado! Oh my god.
March 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word BLT on a roll
But the beef isn't on the weck, it's in the weck. The b, the l and the t are within the roll, not on top of it.
March 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word indigo
Past tense: indiwent.
March 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm in!
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word ballade
Adorable!
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word kelptomaniac
I see this is a twice-told typo! (see ruzuzu on-a-stick).
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word ruzuzu on-a-stick
Ha ha! Actually umbrage does sound like a kind of seaweed.
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word ruzuzu on-a-stick
Ruzuzu is something of a kelptomaniac where umbrage is concerned.
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the user reesetee
Happy national cold cut day, rt!
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word cromnyomancy
Does anyone know the term for cookery using tarot cards?
March 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Name
Oops - hadn't read comments on feedback, sorry.
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word Name
You're chasing a conspiracy theory! I'm sure "subscribers" refers to the number of users "subscribed" to that list, i.e. receving updates from it.
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word BLT
See BLT on a roll.
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word BLT
In a roll!
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word poltophagy
If God had wanted us to chew our food, he wouldn't have given us stomach acid.
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the list four-weeks--28-breakfasts
Marvellous! I've rather enoyed this. Now you ought to rank them.
Do you think your breakfasting habits will change as a result of this? What was revelatory? What was minging?
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word BLT on a roll
Shurely "in a roll"?
March 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word dolor
Another day, another dolor.
March 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word stink, stank, stunk
That song's a stone-cold classic - I sing sang sung it to my kids when they were babies.
March 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word till
That makes sense, rolig. After all, you only have to write one extra letter, and you don't have to worry about that extra l.
February 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word swanking
C.f. swank-pot.
February 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word poophile
Steady on, hh. I'm happy to call myself a poophile, but I wouldn't wish diaresis on anyone.
February 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word teachable moment
Can one agree with a hork?
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word handsometer
What happens to your eyes when they register a high level of handsome? Do they spin around or emit stars or something?
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word teachable moment
*hork*
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word poophile
And not to be confused with a fernando poophile.
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word poophile
Such as the poop-noddy?
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word changua
That looks great!
February 25, 2011
yarb commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
Ha! nonexistent people is like something out of Borges!
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word toilet gloves
What would make an excellent gift, or a prize in a raffle perhaps, would be a combination flesh-brush / toilet gloves presentation pack.
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word flesh-brush
Everything has some frictional value.
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word haruspicate
Great word, I think I learned this one from Eliot.
(Ahem. Salvages.)
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word flaff
Perhaps the "Century" is the 22nd?
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word laser tits
Laser tits woman is the new desktop chez yarb. The kids will probably be annoyed when they notice, but damn it, that flirtatious scarlet macaw had had more than its 15 minutes.
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word laser tits
I love her, even though her saddle is way too low.
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word temporal
Have you tried lords temporal, ruzuzu? They're a bit like prawns, but not as juicy.
February 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word Affinity Bible
A glaring error. The bible expressly permits marrying one's grandmother's wife.
February 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
*imagines no possessions, except apples (and butts)*
February 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
You mean you're bobbing for imaginary apples... in your imagination?!
Clever; I hadn't thought of that!
February 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word caramel
"...she gallops night by night / through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love."
February 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word gump
"This Gump resembled an Elk's head, only the nose turned upward in a saucy manner and there were whiskers upon its chin, like those of a billy-goat." - The Marvellous Land of Oz, Frank L. Baum.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word gump
Fictitious bird from the Oz books.
"Gumps appear to be common animals in the land of Oz. They are elk-like creatures but with caprine whiskers. Specifically The Gump is actually just the head of one of these creatures mounted on a plaque, with two sofas for a body, palm tree limbs for wings, and a broom for a tail. This was all tied together with clothes line. After his construction, the Gump was brought to life using the Powder of Life. He was later disassembled, at his own request, and remained only a head for the remainder of the series. The Gump is one of two creatures who were once living and then brought back to life by the Powder of Life, the other was a blue bear skin rug owned by a woman named Dinah." - Wikipedia
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
You can count on it.
Have you ever bobbed for imaginary apples?
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word caramel
Queen Mab.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word stiver
The slums?
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
I blame the absence of butts for my unduly chaste reading.
Personally I prefer a good old fashioned butt to a "fluid bath".
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
How could I not see that?!
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
So that's one vote for option a.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word collodion
Right you are.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word bobbing for apples
What does this mean to you? Does it refer to:
a. Using your teeth to remove apples from a tub, or butt, of water,
b. Using your teeth to bite apples dangling, above your head, from a bough or yardarm,
c. Either or both of the above, or
d. A sexual act (please give details)?
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word collodion
Collodion: Lucifer's incontinence pad.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word caramel
No, I say "liquorish". "Lick-o-riss" would be how the queen says it.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word rompstall
Alas, I learn this word too late for Valentine's day.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word caramel
Ditto Bilby. "Car-mull" is ludicrous.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word Nordic Union of Naturally Blond Pussy
Ha ha. Belgium and the Black Sea are good too.
February 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word Zeitgeist
It is bland, I agree.
Edit: but not as bland as this comment.
February 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list wordniks-who-proudly-contribute-worthless-stuff--a-lot-of-dumb-comments--and-useless-words-to-the-zeitgeist-page
mollusque's oxymoron is my fetish.
February 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Zeitgeist
"Community" is better for what is effectively "the comments page". "Zeitgeist" would be good for a comprehensive stats page like on Librarything.
February 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word lucuma
With accent: lĂºcuma.
February 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word geonyctitropic
Good thing we're geonyctitropic! Tee-hee.
February 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word geonyctitropic
Hee hee. The humans think we're sleeping, but really we're mocking them telepathically.
February 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word geonyctitropic
What's with the scare-quotes around "sleep"? Are you suggesting that "certain plants" are faking it? Like naughty children?
February 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word androgalactozemia
I wonder if there's ever been a person called Andrew Galactozemia?
February 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word fornicate
Brilliant!
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list four-weeks--28-breakfasts
This morning, a four-day-old heart-shaped jam donut, one cup of nauseatingly sweet milky coffee and one of bitter cold black coffee.
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word phelloid
I didn't realise it was a real word!
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word phelloid
c.f. phalloid - cock-like; resembling cock.
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word barbituate
Actually I think there is such a thing as yarbiturates.. vague memories of someone, probably rhming with trilby, distilling such a noisome brew in the past.
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word vang
Boom-vang!
boom-vang!
February 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word barbituate
One habituated to barbiturates.
February 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word water fountain
bubbler is new to me and just a teensy bit creepy.
February 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word water fountain
reesetee: but water tpically fountains in... fountains, no? Of the ornamental variety I mean.
February 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word water fountain
Ha ha. I suppose I use both terms although drinking fountain obviously makes more sense.
February 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list recaptcha-words
Ruzuzu, you're gifted.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word psychosexualist
Euryvocalic-in-waiting.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list recaptcha-words
Although in fact it is - to us.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list recaptcha-words
Where did I say it was a gift?
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word hamomanometer
"Hang on a moment" said with a mouthful of taffy.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word straightforwardly
You can add two letters with straightforwardness.
Edit: but then it wouldn't fit your list...
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word rhamphorhynchoid
See also rhamphorhynchus, one of my favourite winged beasts.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word Speed-Hump Simulator
Yep, some parts of South America have sleeping policeman calqued into Spanish - the others always guffaw when I tell them.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word inner punctum
Is it me or does it smell wrong in here.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list recaptcha-words
Yes an excellent list. Personally I think you did well to create a list before ruzuzu could comment on it. I've been a bit slow at creating lists recently and the last few have actully come with pre-comments by ruzuzu. You've got to be pretty snappy to get in ahead of her!
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word ophthalmologist
Bilby that's the best joke I've seen on wordnik in yonks - possible ever. I doff my hat to it and it's only out of prudery that I hesitate to doff the rest.
February 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word muffin man
What does the muffin man have on the sides of his head?
- muffineers.
February 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word muffin-man
No.
February 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list be-vewwy--vewwy-quiet
I did it at a concert once, and felt omnipotent.
February 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Colophon
The problem is not the users, it's Wordnik's ridiculous policy of separate and distinct entries for upper- and lower-case version of words.
February 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word itselves
Weirdo version of themselves.
February 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word funistrada
That sounds delicious dontcry - in a very 1970's way..
February 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
The thing is I'm not a big fan of sustainability (as a word) precisely because it has that stain bang in the middle of it. But at least it has some ability.
This is just a stain surrounded by suism, which could be a collective noun for lawyers, or short for sewer system, or the activities of a suist.
All in all, revolting.
February 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
The more I see this word, the more hideous it looks.
February 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
The dawning of the era of sustainism
negates, revokes, expunges and aborts
my deeply-held belief in Jainism.
Had I been an adherent of LilWayneism,
I probably wouldn't have cared that nothing thwarts
the dawning of the era of sustainism,
or the creeping tide of cellophanism;
I could have held onto (with all its warts)
my deeply-held belief in Jainism,
or retreated to the redoubt of BrainsBrainsism,
or other such retarded thoughts.
But the dawning of the era of sustainism,
brings in its wake a sad RemembertheMaineism
and thanks to cultural theorist Michiel Schwartz,
my deeply-held belief in Jainism
seems no better than a tawdry Thomas Paine-ism.
It's like being in a terrible intellectual storm far from any ports:
the dawning of the era of sustainism
on my deeply-held belief in Jainism.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
It's OK, I'll go with "Thomas Paine-ism".
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
We need one more.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
Keep going and we'll have enough for a villanelle.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word pythonesque
Ah, but the comedy series was named after the programming language.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word goer-by
I suppose so. Unless you think we ought to let by-goers be by-goers.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
At last, something to rhyme with Jainism.
February 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word lang sign
See auld lang syne.
January 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word disappointing children
My Monica's a disappointing child.
I try, of course. She's just so wild.
She set Louise on fire. And Matilda -
somehow she got hold of a croquet mallet and killed her.
And she fed
Clotilde lead...
If only there were a saint
for disappointing children. But there ain't.
January 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word sick chickens
Offical doctrine holds chickens to be soulless,
but not St Ferreolus;
you see, when a chicken sickens and bok-boks "o Lord, is anybody there?",
St Ferreolus hears that chicken's prayer.
January 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word sick chickens
My chickens they were sickenin', and some of 'em were dead,
so to good St Ferreolus I importunately said:
"my chooks are crook, your holiness, they hardly leave their coop",
and he sent down a lovely recipe for chicken soup.
January 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word Belgians with hernias
I applied to St Gomer
with a subdural haematoma,
but he said "I'll have to spurn ya -
come back when you've got a Belgian passport and a hernia."
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the user Dan337
Thanks for all your entertaining contributions and for the kind offer of your nuncle.
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word hardware
And I corroborate chained_bear. Let's all indulge in an orgy of mutual corroboration.
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sore eyes
Should your eyes be sore or square,
address your prayer unto St Clare:
for whether your eyes be square or sore,
St Clare is there for your succour.
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word mastick
I was actually referring (facetiously) to O'Brian - who I do still plan on reading... if I ever manage to machete my way through the dense growth of my tbr pile.
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word prone
Are you particularly prune-prone?
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word afghanistani
That's great, but isn't Afghan the nationality?
January 28, 2011
yarb commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
I have nothing to declare but your genius.
January 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word mastick
Don't let those highbrow so-called "classics" interfere with your nightly romps with Rabelais.
January 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word parody of reaffirmation
I'm trying to imagine a parody that doesn't fit that definition...
January 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word cooccur
Cute!
January 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word prone
I never realised this meant lying face-down; I thought it was just "lying flat" (face up or down).
January 25, 2011
yarb commented on the list weaselie
I recently learned mustelid from a rather unusual novel.
January 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word obecalp
Cool!
January 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word nape
Short for napery presumably.
January 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word Meatball sandwich horseplay leads to two deaths, family betrayal, two trials
Ha ha! Pass the sugarlumps.
January 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word Meatball sandwich horseplay leads to two deaths, family betrayal, two trials
This play about the meatball sandwich horse sounds dangerous. I'm surprised it hasn't been banned yet.
January 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list interjections-spelled-with-only-hs-and-vowels
Is the 'h' compulsory, or can they be just vowels?
January 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word two completely superfluous electric bottle openers - thanks cousins
One would have been unfortunate; two is a conspiracy.
January 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list interjections-spelled-with-only-hs-and-vowels
Does 'y' count as a vowel for the purpose of this list?
January 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list human-powered-vehicles
I keep wanting to call it a push-me-pull-you, but I realise that was a quadrupedal creature with two front-ends from Alice, or Dr. Doolittle, or maybe Gulliver's Travels, or something like that.
January 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list human-powered-vehicles
Bah. A crummy name for a supercool means of conveyance.
January 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list human-powered-vehicles
What's the word for that railcar powered by two people pushing on a see-saw?
January 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list big-top
I especially like impalement arts.
January 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word momentously
I'm surprised there's no direct flight from Baltimore to Tblisi.
January 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list more-fun-spoonerized
I love hunting ground!
January 13, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-request-line
I suppose the reason KWAY-sy makes me so queasy is that in most English words beginning qua- (quag, quality, quadrangle, qualm, etc), the first syllable is pronounced KWAH or KWO. I can think of very few pronounced KWAY where the /a/ is not part of a different phoneme (e.g. quail, quake).
I think it's best for all if I keep my hrad /s/ to myself.
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list walking-in-the-rain
That's the problem with earthworms, isn't it? No sense of restraint.
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list walking-in-the-rain
When you were a kid? Why did you quit?
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list walking-in-the-rain
All I could think of was worms, and then I noticed you already had worms.
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word hound's-tongue
Ha, wonderful!
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-request-line
I'm not following you, chelster. You seem to be saying:
"Quasi-" - loanword (i.e. directly) from Latin, so we use the English system of pronunciation.
"Quasimodo" - comes directly from Latin, so it's an exception.
In my experience it's simply that KWAY-sy (or -zy) is the American pronunciation, while KWAH-sy is normal in England and Australia (don't know about other Anglophone countries).
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-request-line
Never mind newfangled things like quasars. How about good old quasimodo? Surely he doesn't answer to KWAY-zee-modo? That would be kwazy indeed.
How about plain qua?
January 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word Istanbul
Why did Constantinople get the works?
January 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Old New York
People just liked it better that way.
January 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word postal
I believe it's that (U.S.) post offices were famous for driving their employees and customers to rage / insanity. I'm surprised you'd not heard it before - although I'm not sure I've heard it in that sense of pure excitement.
Good spot!
January 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word basketball
Century dictionary alert!
January 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word obstreperous
I rather like "obstroporous" for its echo of stroppy.
January 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-request-line
Please! "Quasi-" with an a as in "quake" and an i as in "sigh" not only has little to recommend it, but it makes me retch.
The first vowel should be as in "quad", and the "i" should be short. A hrad /s/ is preferred but I'm open minded.
January 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word wolfshead
I watched that version. I remember thinking Herne the hunter was just awesome, but I couldn't understand why a hunter would dress up as a deer.
Robin Hood stories (in heaven knows what edition) are one of the earliest things I remember being read before bed as a kid.
January 6, 2011
yarb commented on the list frogapplause-suitcase
*ditto*
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list state-of-being-verbs
And shouldn't will be will be?
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word WTF
For more wild speculation, and also a rare typo by bilby, see wtf.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list state-of-being-verbs
Bilby, I think in your example it's rather is that's substituting (as a convenience) for equals. Even staying in the sphere of maths I think there is a distinction. "Equals" in your example here is shorthand for "is the sum of". Three plus four equals seven, but seven doesn't equal a prime number - it is a prime.
"I am a man".
"I am equal to a man".
Not all verbs of being were created equal.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list below-the-belt
"Brief days"! Ha, ha, ha.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word tripe-visaged
Why is tripe always so expressionless?
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word stone-boat
A word I learnt from wine bottles.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word Rick Steves is majestic
Do you agree?
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list looking-words-up-is-time-consuming-dangerous-and-leads-to-too-many-lists
A species of weevil found in the hulls of whaling vessels.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list below-the-belt
Sentences you only see on Wordnik, no. 96:
"Ah. I was operating on the older definition of smallclothes..."
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word bittel
compare lol
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word Rick Steves' Europe
I think it's an open debate but I agree with you, ptero.
Rick Steves is majestic, though.
January 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list unruzuzu
Yoo hoo! Is that you, Mordechai Vanunu?
January 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Rusconi's anus
Were you looking for rusconi's anus?
January 3, 2011
yarb commented on the list cross-my-heart
'Tis the season for cyclocross.
December 31, 2010
yarb commented on the list containing-c-k-j
What do you think of Mick Jagger?
December 31, 2010
yarb commented on the list containing-c-k-j
I like cheek by jowl and cookie jar because they eschew the "ck" formula.
December 31, 2010
yarb commented on the list containing-c-k-j
How do you feel about multi-word phrases? Do you like blackberry jam?
December 31, 2010
yarb commented on the word jequirity
Was there a Stendhalian theme to the cafe, other than its name? Waiters in pantaloons? Petits-fours on the menu?
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word percussopunctator
Sample quote: "There's nothing the matter with the instrument, it's the body. The woman's body is all wrong!"
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word percussopunctator
Have you seen "Dead Ringers" by David Cronenberg? He really grabs hold of the medical instrument thing.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word character
I'd call that "restraint", rather than character.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jequirity
Ladybirds!
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jejunocolostomy
Do you know what word makes me think of madmouth taking a scalpel to her surroundings? Madmouth.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word ithsmorrhagia
But that's because there's already a word for a non-haemorrhaging throat - throat.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jejunocolostomy
Thanks but all your lists are so copious and exhaustive that I almost never have anything to add. It's like the Pope handing you a brush and palette in the Sistine Chapel and giving you permission to embellish as you see fit.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word ithsmorrhagia
A vile word, quite Lovecraftian.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jequirity
Ah, I gotcha.
But! *tries to think of something red and black and good for you*
But...
Alright then.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jejunocolostomy
Thanks! I'm all about the prosody.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jequirity
But kidney beans are red and they're not poisonous. The fibbers!
I didn't know you couldn't eat monarch butterflies. I'll watch out for those buggers from now on.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the list acute-care-clinic
what's so cute about your care clinic on wheels, anyway?
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the list acute-care-clinic
lol
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word Janet's method
That Janet, she weren't half clever.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jejunocolostomy
Trochee, dactyl, trochee. Nice.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word jequirity
As long as you don't get really hungry and eat them. They're beans!
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word menometastasis
Yes, synchronization isn't vicarious. This would be menstruating (or believing oneself to be menstruating) out of sympathy with another. If I ever menstruate I'll come back and add further thoughts.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word chav
Very interesting, I've never heard that theory before.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word plomb
I had a Serbian dentist once. He did his job with aplomb.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word girlfriend
I find it odd, too. In the UK a woman's femal friends are simply her "friends".
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word thalassocracy
I think you mean "in light of", not "in lieu of". I noticed the same solecism in a letter to our local paper recently.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word hole-in-one
I've heard both. I suppose holes-in-one is more correct, but actually I think hole-in-ones sounds more natural.
holes-in-one makes it sound like several holes in one shot - or worse, something orifice-related.
December 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word Christmas
Happy Xmas everyone. I'm just about to go downstairs and mutilate the carrots.
December 25, 2010
yarb commented on the list florida-keys-list
Ha ha! The source of much humour when I was a boy - but with a monk lock rather than a don lock.
December 23, 2010
yarb commented on the word extraposed subject
I can live with bedcrumbs.
December 20, 2010
yarb commented on the word extraposed subject
Why is it a mistake to eat eclairs in bed?
December 20, 2010
yarb commented on the word shat
There's nothing funny about funny cars, bilby, and well you know it.
December 20, 2010
yarb commented on the word abactina
Weird! Here's one person's guess .
December 20, 2010
yarb commented on the word The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities
Two rather different (sub)titles there!
December 20, 2010
yarb commented on the word nesh
No, it's not a verb.
December 19, 2010
yarb commented on the word shat
FWIW, it's not humorous anymore. At least in the UK, it's standard past tense of shit. Totally normal.
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the word shat
Well fuck me.
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the word shat
How recently formed is shat? I didn't think it was recent at all.
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the list belistful
Please do start talking about Platonic idealism!
Did you get the old Urquhart / Motteux translation of Rabelais?
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the list belistful
A copy? You should have got the real thing.
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the word actuopalynology
Also "apology to lunacy".
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the word actuopalynology
Anagram of "you act polygonal".
December 18, 2010
yarb commented on the word key-cold
Gah! Thanks. Thought I'd checked the definitions yesterday but obvs not.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the list belistful
(not to be confused with the pre-internet "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa")
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the list belistful
Of course by "everyone" I really mean "I".
Obviously Shakespeare, Ulysses, the verse of Gavin Ewart and maybe Byron, Orwell's essays, the Shorter OED, Don Quixote in the Smollett translation and Teh Manuscript Found in Saragossa.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word aspie
*facepalm*
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the list belistful
It's actually one of only five or ten books that everyone should really own in hardback.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word key-cold
Brr, that is quite cold. But why would you be key-cold, any more than anyone is their-area-cold? Is there some pun here that I'm missing?
Sorry for being such a bore.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word key-cold
The Florida Keys are cold?
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word kurakkan-grinder
All we need now is for an organ-grinder to happen along in seach of a monkey and we'll have the makings of a very fine list.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word A beautiful woman without cheese is like a dessert with one eye
I think I prefer it this way around.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word kurakkan-grinder
Then you should call a lens-grinder.
December 17, 2010
yarb commented on the word stunning
I think that because sense #2 is dominant, a usage of sense #1 needs to make reference to whatever aspect of the subject is so stunning (e.g. its complexity). Otherwise ("Oh, what a stunning war!") it does indeed sound wrong.
As for wrestling with a stunning thing, good point but I think it's possible (e.g. a hangover). Basically the way I read that sentence is like this:
The situation was complex enough to stun a mere mortal, but Holbrooke wrestled with its complexity - as Superman might wrestle with an impending meteorite - and emerged triumphant and unstunned.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the list we-three-kings
When you were a kid did you wonder where "Orientar" might be?
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word stunning
I don't think "stunning" has become inextricably wedded to sense #2 (although this is the more common sense these days), and I don't see why sense #1 need refer to a literal, physical blow rather than a figurative one.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the list the-ginger-man
Ha ha - indeed!
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the list the-ginger-man
I just read it a couple of weeks ago. I started dog-earing pages, with a list in mind, but it was so much fun that before long I gave it up and just ripped through it like a ferret in a hole. Maybe next time.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word stunning
Thanks a million rt!
I have the OED on CD on my home computer, but it seems to have stopped working. In any case I usually forget these things when I'm at home.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word zaratan
I like this beast. I always thought regular sea turtles were too small.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word unabortively
A seminal text.
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word unabortive
That's some deathless verse right there!
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word key-cold
Wuh?
December 16, 2010
yarb commented on the word cheeses of Nazareth
Did Jesus choose the cheeses of the Jews?
December 15, 2010
yarb commented on the word interlard
I just came here to make the same joke prolagus did 11 months ago. *shakes fist at prolagus*
December 15, 2010
yarb commented on the word giant puffball
They're very tasty, too, you know, sauteed with butter and onions or what you will (but the smaller giant puffballs are better for eating than the really humongous ones).
December 15, 2010
yarb commented on the word giant puffball
As a young whelp I discovered, in a bramble-ridden copse close to my home, a clutch of abnormally large giant puffballs. For some strange reason my father called the local newspaper, and a photographer came to take our picture - me, one or more siblings, and the giant puffballs.
December 15, 2010
yarb commented on the word stunning
I read it as McFadden using stunning in AHD's sense #1 of stun - "to daze or render senseless, as if by a blow"; i.e. the situation was so complex as to leave one dazed.
To my mind, the note of admiration is not inevitable and may represent a newer sense of the word. Someone with OED access could check this.
December 14, 2010
yarb commented on the word plebeian
You can avoid that problem by using the very satisfactory short form, pleb.
December 14, 2010
yarb commented on the word A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye
It's like they say: "In the land of the blind, dessert without cheese goes down very nicely, thank you."
December 14, 2010
yarb commented on the word ennui
Please tell me that Bill is a vampire too!
A vampire named Bill would really be the icing on this whole Buffy / Twilight vampire cake.
December 11, 2010
yarb commented on the word agilia
Truly made of fail!
December 9, 2010
yarb commented on the list ball-games-and-sports
darts??
December 9, 2010
yarb commented on the list ball-games-and-sports
rugby is really two games, rugby union and rugby league (the difference is greater than that between American and Canadian football).
December 9, 2010
yarb commented on the word netball
Can't believe this hadn't been listed before.
December 8, 2010
yarb commented on the word dartboard
Presumably skittles, shove ha'penny and dominoes.
December 8, 2010
yarb commented on the word netball
It's an olympic sport! When I was in school all the girls played netball. It's very common in the UK and Australia.
I tried it once and I've got to say it seems a bit stupid. Basically it's like basketball but you're not allowed to move while you're holding the ball, and you're not allowed to jump when you shoot.
December 8, 2010
yarb commented on the word grooving-machine
Got your boots on, daddy-oh!
December 8, 2010
yarb commented on the word search
Can someone remind me please how to search only in Wordnik comments, or only in list names and descriptions?
December 8, 2010
yarb commented on the word truck nutz
A city of Ford Castratos and Dodge Ram Orchidectomies.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word truck nutz
I have never seen truck nutz; I must live in a city of eunuch trucks.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the list unpassibilities
This list puts the 'un' in 'fun'.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word cheeses of Nazareth
I thought Jesus was the big cheese of Nazareth?
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word dazzler
See bobby-dazzler.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word dazzler
But none with "bobby" :(
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word pigritude
Although both sloth and slothfulness describe the character trait, the former also connotes the sin of sloth (in the biblical sense).
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word undies
Becomes undead.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the list un
Thanks 'jo and hernie!
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the list un
That's insane!
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the list un
What a curio! Thank you my dear ruzuzu.
December 7, 2010
yarb commented on the word Baconian
I used to live close to the Kensington public library in Liverpool, and above the doors was the following inscription:
"Reading maketh a Full man,
Conference a Ready man
& Writing an Exact man." - Bacon
Legend had it that at one time there had been a graffito appended reading "- a fat man".
Pic here.
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the word cheeses of Nazareth
And tastier too.
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the word cheeses of Nazareth
Cheese is older than Jesus, no?
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the word juniper berry
Make gin!
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the user 100001467888298
I think you should definitely record the last verse too. It puts a whole different slant on the song. Are you going to present it live, or on a commemorative CD? Is it on youtube?
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the user 100001467888298
Hi Richard. Unfortunately I am not on the Council of Words (CoW) but I have a contact who is. My source tells me that the CoW is aware of your word and will vote on its validity at the next Meeting of Officials of the Council of Words (MooCoW). I'll let you know the results of the CoW's deliberations as soon as I can.
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the word seat-worm
Speak for yourself, CD!
December 3, 2010
yarb commented on the user 100001467888298
I, for one, welcome our new Tellusian overlords.
December 2, 2010
yarb commented on the word cloche
I'm in the market for a cloche.
December 2, 2010
yarb commented on the word antibiotic
Compare pronunciation of the second syllable here with that in antigen.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word hinky
I like how it rhymes with kinky, and the first two examples are from a publication titled "Performing the Pelvic Exam".
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word hinky
How strange that I've never come across this before!
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the list inky
I should ask you, really.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the list inky
Oh, they were just placeholders while I think up a theme for this list.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word jam tomorrow
"The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day." - The White Queen in Through the Looking-Glass.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word teeth
Never had the pleasure of ham and jam - ham today, jam tomorrow, that's my motto.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word dream a little dream of lists
Lol. Let me know when you dream about yarb mailing 50 cents to an address in the MidWest, post-unpaid.
December 1, 2010
yarb commented on the word Ginnungagap
Mind the Ginnungagap!
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word fascinating
I'd say something like "the activities the student will be involved in are a great advertisement for biology as a career" or "the activities will highlight or showcase the appeal of a career in biology".
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word Elemenope
And her idiot cousin Dope.
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word bolk
The Century Dictionary is all over this one like a bad rash.
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word bolk
Does this rhyme with yolk?
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word Elemenope
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, Elemenope...
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word toby
Toby or not toby...
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word toby
I made the same comparison in a high-school essay and have ocasionally pondered it since, but your guess is as good as mine.
From wikipedia: "Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is the most high-profile collector of toby jugs, with his collection said to be the largest in North America."
November 30, 2010
yarb commented on the word urucum
I ate moqueca de camarĂ£o for the first time last weekend and nearly passed out with the pleasure.
November 29, 2010
yarb commented on the word solemnness
Yes, in fact it's wonderful all around with the ole and the bookending esses.
November 29, 2010
yarb commented on the word cotton-bale
Thanks h; I enjoyed that - one of your finer rognons.
November 29, 2010
yarb commented on the word the united states of america
Life, liberty and the pursuit of sandwiches.
November 29, 2010
yarb commented on the word Battle of Pilot Knob
Was this an argument over who got to fly the plane?
November 29, 2010
yarb commented on the word Meramec Cavern
Wow! Who played you in the movie?
November 26, 2010
yarb commented on the word the mummy of all my befarted body
Rabelais is the gift that keeps on giving!
November 26, 2010
yarb commented on the word cotton-bale
Did you find any gravy to go with them?
November 25, 2010
yarb commented on the word togaed
1997, probably, but it would have been an ironic toga.
November 25, 2010
yarb commented on the list knots
Well, from my perspctive it would be the other way around. But you should ask herb what he thinks.
November 23, 2010
yarb commented on the word can't type yardarm without thinking of yarb
I'll take that comment, and spread it on a barm, and eat it.
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word can't type yardarm without thinking of yarb
Nothing wrong with a barm. I love a good barm me. With bacon and all that crap.
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word sputum clearance strategies
(And that Erin Whatsername)!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word sputum clearance strategies
I blame John!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word sputum clearance strategies
Why are all my comments ending with exclamation marks?!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word sputum clearance strategies
This sounds like a hedge fund!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the list knots
Please do, I would love some company!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word the united states of america
Sorry, I can't send you directions because you accidentally redacted your email address.
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the list knots
Yes, and it's also one of the several stages of yarb addiction!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word cup
"Found my way downstairs and drank a cup" - The Beatles, A Day in the Life
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word yearning
Why do you hate rennet?
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word log-book
If ever an etymology bore the reek of folk this one did. It can't be right (but I could be wrong).
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word tref
Good thing I'm not Word-Jewish then, or clicking on this page would have been problematical!
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word love
I do. But I'm not telling you.
November 21, 2010
yarb commented on the word doolally tap
Very interesting; when I were a whelp crazy people were often described as tap or tapped. I assumed it was from the gesture of tapping the side of one's head to indicate mental instability in another.
November 21, 2010
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